The Mitchells vs. The Machines - Review

It’s hard to think of another film studio who’s so quickly turned from being the laughingstock to a dream team. While Sony Pictures Animation always had some creative spirit, evidenced by films like “Surf’s Up” and “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs,” it wasn’t until Chris Lord and Phil Miller came along that the world really started to pay attention. Now, blending the overexaggerated cartoony nature of “Meatball” and “Hotel Transylvania” with the heart and art style of “Into the Spider-Verse” Lord and Miller have brought us the epic tale of “The Mitchells vs. The Machines.”

While on the surface a fairly routine tale of a family bonding road trip interrupted by a technological uprising, it’s in the details where the film truly shines. The way the story is communicated feels wholly unique, thanks to the two different art styles at play. There’s the most obvious one; the film’s bright colors and thick grease pencil lines makes everything pop with energy and leads every paused moment to look like a work of pure hand drawn art. It’s a thrilling unique look and one that Sony will hopefully continue to build upon outside of the world of animated Spider-Man.

Secondly is the film’s heavy use of filters, 2D drawing, sketches, and freeze frame humor that work on multiple levels. Director/co-writer Mike Rianda (“Gravity Falls”) uses them as a way to capture the odd humor of these characters and their adventure but also a way to get to know Katie Mitchell, voiced by Abbi Jacobson (“Broad City,” “Disenchantment”). With her dream to be a filmmaker, every moment viewed through her eyes has some sort of effect applied to it to truly show the world through her eyes. It’s a frankly genius way to use art and stylistic decisions to communicate something to the audience, much like the animation of “Spider-Verse”, and it’s a great addition.

Speaking of Jacobson, she leads a truly hilarious cast that brings wonderful comedic timing and emotional depth to their performances. Rounding out the cast is Danny McBride (“Eastbound and Down,” “Pineapple Express”) as her father Rick, putting more emotion into this role than possibly any of his prior, Maya Rudolph (“Bridesmaids,” “Big Mouth”) as her mother Linda, an overzealous oddball of heart and emotion, and Mike Rianda as her brother Aaron, a Dino obsessed pre-teen who might be the film’s single best comedic tool. Eric Andre (“The Eric Andre Show,” “Man Seeking Woman”) is also here doing a great tech billionaire parody, Olivia Colman (“The Favourite,” “Fleabag”) is frankly kind of chilling as the evil AI PAL, and Beck Bennett (“Saturday Night Live,” “Ducktales (2017)”) and Fred Armisen (“Saturday Night Live,” “Documentary Now”) voice a pair of defective robots who are absolute scene stealers for virtually the entire film.

Technology is a huge theme here. It’s not just a stand-in apocalyptic problem the family needs to work together to overcome. Like many other family films, the themes of screen time, mobile phones, and connecting with family are hugely at play here, yet the film does something daringly obvious: it doesn’t pick a side. It avoids siding with the technophobic parents or the tech obsessed kids and demonizing the other. This leads to a tale of emotion, where people are forced to explain their feelings and it’s a truly heartwarming tale because of it. It doesn’t take the easy route to its story, requiring more creative effort in how it’s approached, and it does wonders.

This is, without a doubt, a film with an identity and a personality. This isn’t just evident from the visual aspects, but also in how openly cheesy and silly it all is. While not as overly cartoony as previous Lord and Miller productions like “Meatballs” or “The LEGO Movie”, Rianda and co-writer Jeff Rowe (“Disenchantment,” “Gravity Falls”) have created a film that wears its heart firmly and proudly on its sleeve. There’s a lot of emotional family talk, karaoke, home movies, and celebration of identity going on. It might rob the film of the “seriousness” of other modern animation projects from studios like Pixar, but it also gives everything a layer of authenticity. You really, genuinely, care and believe that this group of four weirdos and their possibly mutated dog are a family.

This big beating heart, wonderful sense of emotion, fantastic visuals that work on multiple levels, and absolutely stellar voice cast, all wrapped up in an infectiously great musical score from Marks Motherbaugh (“The LEGO Movie,” “Thor Ragnarok”), help prop up a plot that’s technically kind of routine (this is the second Sony Pictures Animation film from Lord and Miller that features a kill code). Yet, that’s not an issue when you’re watching an adventure so brilliantly realized and blissfully silly. This might very well be the first must-see movie of 2021. 5/5

Mortal Kombat (2021) - Review

 

Despite some small victories with movies like “Detective Pikachu” and “Sonic the Hedgehog,” Hollywood is still chasing the green light of the good video game film adaptation. Sure, there have been plenty of them, but only a handful have risen above the level of mediocrity and even those could be argued for or against.

First time director Simon McQuoid’s “Mortal Kombat (2021)” is yet another body to add to that pile. If all you’re looking for is flashy fights and quippy one-liners, then you might be satisfied, but there’s hardly anything else going on in the film worth paying attention to.

Cole Young, played by Lewis Tan (“Into the Badlands,” “Wu Assassins”) is recruited by Sonya Blade, played by Jessica McNamee (“CHiPS (2017,” “Battle of the Sexes”), and Jax, played by Mehcad Brooks (“Supergirl,” “Desperate Housewives”), to team up with Lord Raiden, played by Tadanobu Asano (“Electric Dragon 80.000 V,” “Midway (2019)”), Liu Kang, played by Ludi Lin (“Power Rangers (2017),” “Kung Fu”), and Kung Lao, played by Max Huang (“Dragon Blade”), to face off against the evil Shang Tsung, played by Chin Han (“Marco Polo,” “Skyscraper (2018)”), and his fighters in a deadly competition known as Mortal Kombat over the fate of two worlds: Earthrealm and Outerworld.

Screenwriter Dave Callaham (“Wonder Woman 1984,” “Zombieland: Double Tap”) and first time writer Greg Russo have clearly done the best they possibly could when being handed an adaptation like this. Mortal Kombat as a franchise has both incredibly low expectations; give us some fights and drama, and yet the more recent games have incredibly extensive stories involving time travel, resurrections, and decades long peace treaties.

So, its understandable then that Callaham and Russo would try to take things down to a simpler level for both fans and newcomers. However, the way they do that is by introducing Cole Young, an entirely new character to the series. Young stands out like a sore thumb, nothing to do with Tan’s performance, and he takes himself way too seriously compared to the other characters.

In a world populated with a lightning god, a potty mouthed Aussie with a laser eye, and a mystical warrior with a saw blade hat, Cole being just a guy who can fight well feels far too vanilla for everything else going on. He just isn’t as interesting as the rest of the characters. Even if Sonya or Kano or Jax are too over the top for you, they at least have clear personalities, whereas Young’s defining trait is being the son of a Mortal Kombat mainstay and also just being the main character.

Tan’s performance is fine, which can also be said for just about everyone else in the movie. Sure, some like Josh Lawson (“Bombshell,” “House of Lies”) as the potty mouthed Aussie Kano, are memorable, but that’s mostly because they’re louder and brasher than everyone else. Most of the memorable cast members are so purely because they’re representing legendary characters; Lin and Huang have a great brotherly dynamic and Brooks and McNamee have chemistry when they actually get to share the screen, but the two are apart for a majority of the film despite clearly being good friends who work well together.

Really, the film’s biggest issues could be easily smoothed over if focus was shifted from Cole to Sonya. She’s an actual character from the series, she has a much more defined motivation than just “protect my family from unknown threat”, she has some charisma and energy, and she goes through the most semblance of an arc of anyone in the entire movie.

But, that’s not what McQuoid delivered. What is good, undeniably so, is the fight scenes. The movie is pretty shameless at how it sets it all up, but its in a way that doesn’t detract from the film. This is a movie where a guy’s main weapon is a saw blade hat, after all. These moments are choreographed well, and while not as smooth as the fights from films like “John Wick”, they aren’t over edited to hell and back like “Transformers” or “Suicide Squad (2016).”

These fights are clearly the reason to see the film, and everything else comes second. They happen in a gloriously gory fashion, and even the ones that don’t end in death and dismemberment still have the benefit of being choreographed well and are undeniably fun to watch. Its the sort of film that puts up just enough basic storytelling competence to make you sit through the parts in between fights to get to the rest of the fights. Its easy to gloss over how boring Cole is as a character when you’re watching him slice a combatant apart to gleefully bloody abandon.

Like the fights, the film also succeeds on the visual front. Not just in terms of CGI elements either. Each character bridges the gap between being faithful to their game counterpart and being more “realistic.” Sonya Blade is still a military vet, but she wears a bit more clothes now than in the games, Kung Lao’s saw blade hat is unmistakable, and Liu Kang’s bright red bandanna is instantly recognizable. The sets and production design is also top notch, providing some great locations for the fights that pay tribute to their game counterparts.

“Mortal Kombat (2021)” has it where it counts. Its fun to watch these fights take place in a universe where a simple punch to the jaw can result in someone spitting up a mouthful of blood. Its ridiculous but it takes itself just seriously enough to not be a complete eye rolling affair. It would be nice if the writer’s had trusted in these characters who, at least, have preexisting personalities instead of inventing someone who has a bad case of “main character syndrome.” But its not a terrible film either, a perfectly mediocre, decently acted, and violent affair that might be worth half paying attention to if you’re a fan. 2.5/5

Shiva Baby - Review

First Darron Aronofsky, then the Safdie Brothers, and now Emma Seligman, there’s something about Jewish directors and creating the most stressful films of the last decade. However, whereas Aronofsky trades in extravagant psychological horrors and the Safdies explore larger than life characters ripe for downfall, Seligman has set her sights on a far more relatable place: an awkward family gathering.

Seligman frames the events of “Shiva Baby” with a tight and claustrophobic perspective, which heightens the inherent anxiety of the events dramatically. For anyone who’s graduated from college within the last two decades, the discussions of “What are you doing with your life?” and “You’re taking classes on that?” will seem horrifyingly familiar. It’s the quiet anxiety of dealing with so many family members with such particular opinions that Seligman captures so perfectly.

However, it would be nothing without Rachel Sennott (“High Maintenance,” “Call Your Mother”) as Danielle. She’s utterly intoxicating and quickly likable. You so badly want her to succeed, to make the right decisions, and yet she and the film pump even more anxiety into watch her stumble. We don’t know how far she’ll fall over the course of just one day, and its Sennott’s fantastic performance that keeps you riveted from start to finish.

Molly Gordon (“Booksmart,” “Animal Kingdom”) and Polly Draper (“Thirtysomething,” “The Big C”) are also excellent. Gordon plays Maya, Danielle’s longtime best friend. Not only does Gordon milk the extensive history between Maya and Danielle throughout the short runtime, but she, like Danielle, provides a frustrating portrait of a drifting 20-something college student. You so badly want her to succeed and help Danielle, and yet she can only do so much.

The same goes for Draper as Danielle’s mother, Debbie. This is not just another “oblivious mother, if only she knew better” type rolls. Debbie is clearly far more in-tune with her daughter than Danielle would like to admit, and the repertoire between the two of them is the heart and soul of the movie.

The dialogue goes off at a rapid-fire pace, and the entire film drips with quotable lines and moments of pure silent dread. You’d be hard pressed to find a film that better captures the feeling of a family gathering, Jewish or not. From the quiet comments that you can’t tell if you’re meant to hear to the claustrophobic packed like sardines nature of everything to the awkward across the room glances, the entire film feels so painfully real, as if we’re plucking 77 minutes directly out of the middle of Danielle’s life.

Much has been made of the horror movie-esque score from Ariel Marx (“The Tale,” “To Dust”), and while it is good, there are moments where it feels like a bit much. Its tempting to critique these moments, which drown out all other sounds and dialogue, as overpowering. Yet, as these few moments almost make you cover your ears as you watch the film, the goal has been achieved and the anxiety has been fully passed on to the viewing world.

If there are any complaints to make about Seligman’s awkwardly hilarious and tense directorial debut, one could make note of the lack of overarching “plot.” Its yet another indie movie that follows a character and less a specific arc structure or character development spreadsheet. Yet something like this is less a complaint and more a preface as to what kind of film this is.

Because at the end of the day “Shiva Baby” is tense, awkward, and teeth grindingly funny with a standout central performance and a true sense of realism most veteran filmmakers cannot achieve. With a full slate of projects lined up in the future, Seligman has proven herself with one 77-minute directorial debut that she’s got a bright future ahead of her. 4.5/5