Speed Racer: A Racing Retrospective

 

I never got to experience this movie back in 2008. I don't quite remember when I first watched it, but I remember the DVD being in regular rotation in my tiny tube TV DVD player combo back in my middle school days. This was the same TV that I would sneak into my room at night to watch all manner of movies I had rented from the library or snuck up from our basement. Some I should've been allowed to watch. Some I shouldn't have. I would keep a packet of sticky notes by my bed so that, when I felt myself nodding off, I would mark the title and timestamp that I stopped the film to go to bed. “Speed Racer” was a film that I stopped watch on that little TV after five minutes, because I wanted to watch it on our big 40-inch basement TV instead.

Okay, Mr. Two-time-Grand-Prix-five-time-WRL-future-Hall-of-Fame, teach me something.

I love “The Matrix,” another film I watched endlessly as a child, and one of those movies that I point to and say, "That one made me want to make movies." Now that I've grown older and my knowledge of the Wachowskis and their influences and work has grown, I appreciate it even more. But there's something that hits me differently about Speed Racer. The more I grow and become a hardened fan of maximalist cinema, the more this is held as the crown jewel of that micro-genre. So many films take the approach of using just insane amounts of resources and budget to tell small human stories. “Brazil,” the “Spider-Verse” franchise, Greta Gerwig's “Barbie,” “The Blues Brothers,” “Batman (1989),” “Transformers,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “The Abyss,” “Terminator 2,” “Avatar,” “Titanic” (Yes I also see a pattern here), all the way back to Fritz Lang's “Metropolis.” All films that are using massive resources and effects to tell human stories. But “Speed Racer” is the only film among them that I feel is transformed through those effects. While the story of “The Abyss” or “EEAAO” or “Barbie” or “Brazil” could work with lessened effects and smaller scale, the foundation of Speed Racer is built with digitized and hyper colorful concrete. It's quite literally in its bones.

Transponder-schmonder. You want a real kick? You go Bernoulli.

Those bones build out the thrilling racing stylings that bleed, literally and figuratively, into the rest of the film's visual language. As if needing to reinforce their techniques even more, the Wachowskis make sure that every scene is shot the same way. It isn't a matter of the racing scenes getting all the attention while switching back to a "normal" approach for the rest of the film. Each moment is treated with the same visual identity. Which isn't to say it's treated with the same intensity. The sisters smartly wind up to things. The opening in Speed's classroom is teaching us how to watch the film. Racing lingo bleeds into his test questions and the world around him melts away, resembling how following scenes will look. But its gradual, slow, and purposeful. They don't throw us headfirst into this material. Michael Giacchino's score echoes this, as it builds slowly throughout the opening until it and the visuals crescendo with the first race. There are scenes that telescope into themselves, seeming as though they’re taking place in an announcer’s booth, for example, before the camera pulls back to reveal that the announcer’s footage was on a blimp above a massive race track that is behind a mountain as the camera zooms out past the mountain to reveal the desert track the scene will actually take place in. It feels as though the Wachowskis are truly trying to break and relearn the visual language of modern filmmaking, even paying tribute to the most basic techniques of that medium. It’s certainly no accident that one of the first things Speed races past in the film’s finale is a wall covered in images of a zebra that appears to be running as he zooms past, replicating the effect of an old school zoetrope. Blistering, colorful, electric, and mind melting. It might be one of the few films you can confidently say looks like nothing else out there, when it released or since.

More like, a non-ja. Terrible, what passes for a ninja these days.

But they never let the infectious childlike spirit be taken from them either. This is a family film, through and through. Characters are easy to like, but not without depth. The humor is silly in a childish way, but it still lands because of who it's coming from. When Spritle and his best friend/monkey Chim Chim successfully distract a bad guy by throwing poop at him, it's certainly a childish gag. But it works because you're cheering at the little brother and his friend managing to help save the day, albeit in a rather crude manner. The family aspect at the center of the film's emotional core also works better because of this. Making it a family film means that you're more likely to watch it with your siblings, parents, and loved ones. Which therefore makes the central parental and sibling conflicts work better. The environment you're in while watching a film can change how you view that film and watching a film that is both for and about families with yours makes it a bit sweeter.

It doesn't matter if racing never changes. What matters is if we let racing change us. Every one of us has to find a reason to do this. You don't climb into a T-180 to be a driver; you do it because you're driven.

What has aged the best about the film is its stark anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist messaging. The central conflict is based around the Racer family's business being potentially bought out by a massive corporation, and the ensuing corruption discovered within the racing world. It is, quite simply, Speed discovering that everything he's ever loved about the thing he's best at is a lie, perpetrated by money. The film’s antagonist, Arnold Royalton tells Speed in this scene, in no uncertain terms, that the artists or drivers don’t matter and have nothing to do with the artform he loves. In the modern age of studio buyouts and monopolies, it hits harder. It hits especially hard for any audience member watching who also wants to make some kind of art. The film doesn't shy away from the fact that Speed and his family need to keep making money to keep racing. Speed blunty says so, “You gotta win if you want to keep driving, and that's what I want to do. It's the only thing I really know how to do.” The Wachowskis know that all art made in this age still has to have some kind of commercial prospect, so they blend that into the film by not only mentioning it, but making sure to emphasize how that need never diminishes the Racer family's talent and passion for their art.

You think you can drive a car and change the world? It doesn't work like that!

Maybe not, but it's the only thing I know how to do and I gotta do something.

Describing a film like “Speed Racer” as impassioned and honest might seem futile or even just silly. This is a $120 million movie that's a live action American adaptation of a Japanese anime that lost its studio over $100 million when it was originally released. So why does it matter? It matters because the people have said so. Much like the underdog story at the center of the film, “Speed Racer” as a film itself has also been undervalued and underappreciated. And now, with this IMAX re-release and 4K blu-ray remaster, it shows that Warner Brothers is starting to realize what they have. I've watched “Speed Racer” numerous times in my life. And I, like Speed, want to make art. I drove almost three hours to an IMAX in a different state to watch this film, because it matters to me. And just like I have many times before, the moment Speed reignites the Mach 6's engine in the final race, I began to silently cry. Here I was in a room full of people who all loved this odd, childish, colorful, family film as much as I did. Who respected what it had to say. Who respected the work that went into it. Who loved it. The last ten minutes of the film have always made me cry, as we watch Speed race along to the finish line, nothing stopping him anymore. The training wheels are off and therefore all we see is an artist with full control of his craft. The environment you're in while watching a film can change how you view that film. At home I watched that ending and cried. In a theatre packed with so many others, cheering for Speed just like the characters in the film, it felt like magic.

Go Speed, Go! 

You, Me & Tuscany - Review: A Reheated Italian Dish

 

Sometimes a film’s recipe is complicated. There are expansive worlds, hyper realistic CGI, millions of dollars worth of visual effects, motion capture, pages of lore, and a cast list so long it adds five minutes to the runtime. But at the same time, there’s a delicate art to the simpler kinds of films that is missing. The kind of films where there’s no green screen, everything is wrapped up within 100 minutes, and life is blissfully uncomplicated. Director Kat Coiro (“Marry Me,” “She-Hulk: Attorney at Law”) has delivered a film just like that, aiming to whisk you off to the Italian countryside from the comfort of your local multiplex with “You, Me & Tuscany.”

The film follows Anna, played by Halle Bailey (“The Little Mermaid (2023),” “The Color Purple (2023)”), a young 20-something woman living in New York City as a house sitter for the rich and famous. After a chance encounter with handsome Italian real estate agent Matteo, played by Lorenzo de Moor (“Another Simple Favor,” “Robbing Mussolini”), she decides to take an impromptu trip to his hometown of Tuscany and sneaks into his abandoned villa home. After Matteo’s mother Gabriella and grandmother Nonna, played by Isabella Ferrari (“The Story of a Poor Young Man,” “Distretto di Polizia”) and Stefania Casini (“1900,” “Lontano da dove”) respectively, find her, she pretends to be Matteo’s fiancé to avoid being arrested. This all goes well until she begins to fall for Matteo’s cousin Michael, played by Regé-Jean Page (“Bridgerton,” “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”), in the process.

Bailey and Page are where the film sparkles the most, with the pair having a lightly antagonistic relationship that slowly blossoms over the course of Anna’s adventure. Things are kept nice and sweet, contrived and calm, throughout their romance, and Page’s smolder certainly does a lot of work endearing her to him. Bailey is pulling from her Disney experience, with big bright eyes and a big beaming smile. She contorts herself to almost be a sort of misunderstood princess lost in a land she doesn’t understand, but Bailey does manage to make Anna a protagonist easy to root for. They’re, quite simply, and adorable and attractive pair of actors to watch waltz through this kind of material.

The supporting cast meanwhile fills exactly the kind of roles you’d expect them to. Gabriella is the overbearing mother excited at the prospect of her son getting married, Nonna is overprotective and suspicious of everything, Vincenzo, Matteo’s father played by Paolo Sassanelli (“Song'e Napule,” “Classe di ferro”), is gruff and cold until Anna wins him over, and Lorenzo, played by Marco Calvani (“The Four Seasons,” “High Tide”) is a borderline fairy godfather cab driver who takes a liking to Anna. The only character the film really forgets about is Anna’s best friend Claire, played by Aziza Scott (“One of Them Days,” “Home Before Dark”), who calls her throughout the film until she just stops doing so. Among the packed supporting cast, Calvani is the clear standout as Lorenzo, simply due to how effortlessly charming and self-aware he seems to be in his role. Everyone else is simply fine, filling their roles without excelling in any of them.

“You, Me & Tuscany” is packed with gorgeous Italian landscapes, gorgeous Italian people, and gorgeous Italian food. Screenwriters Ryan Engle (“Rampage,” “The Commuter”) and Kristin N. Engle bring that last aspect directly into the story through Anna’s deep love of cooking and it adds a welcome bit of depth to her character. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the film as a whole, which seems determined to check off every single box in the rom-com playbook. Virtually nothing here stands out distinctly. That’s not to say it isn’t an enjoyable little cinematic trip overseas, but it’s hard to imagine anyone wanting to rewatch this over a plethora of other stronger examples in the genre.

“You, Me, & Tuscany” has the sights, it has the tastes, it has the people, it has everything wrapped up to make for a perfect example of the rom-com genre. Maybe too perfect, as the film itself fails to stand out from the genre despite its gorgeous locations and charming pair at its center. It’s still highly likely to put a smile on your face and make you forget about your troubles for 100 minutes. This is cinematic comfort food in the form of a nice plate of Italian cuisine. It’s just a dish you’ve almost certainly had before. 3/5

The Drama - Review: Here Comes the Bride

 

Why is it that a wedding is always the most stressful day of someone’s life when it’s supposedly also their best day? There are a myriad of reasons one could give, but suffice it to say that its rarely just the wedding day itself. There’s the catering, photographer, vows, venue, and numerous other things, any of which could be a source of immense stress for the bride or groom. The idea of making a dark comedy about the stress surrounding a wedding has been explored in plenty of films already, but writer/director Kristoffer Borgli (“Sick of Myself,” “Dream Scenario”) has decided to add even more layers of anxiety to the tale of these two soon-to-be newlyweds.

Emma, played by Zendaya (“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “euphoria”), and Charlie, played by Robert Pattinson (“The Batman,” “Twilight”), are young, in love, and engaged. As their wedding quickly approaches, they find themselves going through the typical motions of pre-wedding jitters: deciding on the right kind of food to serve, picking flowers, the cake, the DJ, and many others. However, one night before the wedding, while drinking with fellow couple, and Best Man and Maid of Honor, Mike and Rachel, played by Mamoudou Athie (“Elemental,” “Jurassic World Dominion”) and Alana Haim (“Licorice Pizza,” “The Mastermind (2025)”), respectively, the four decide to play a game where they tell each other the “worst thing they’ve ever done.” All is well initially, until Emma tells her secret, which causes Mike and Rachel to reevaluate their friendship with her and Charlie to question if he truly knows his bride to be.

Much has been made over how the marketing for “The Drama” has deliberately avoided revealing Emma’s secret, while also drawing heavy attention to the fact that she has one. It’s a bold move in the current age of social media speculation and complaints of movie trailers “showing the whole film” prior to release. It’s also smart given that her secret is… quite a doozy. Like his most recent film “Dream Scenario,” Borgli is pointing a direct finger at our cultural sense of empathy using this style of deeply dark satirical humor. Almost immediately, sides are being taken and his script goes to great lengths to hear everyone out. It never feels heavy handed or one-sided because it keeps coming back to the comedy at the center, never becoming a morality play.

Zendaya’s performance rides that tightrope as well, playing up her natural charisma and comedic talents as well as utilizing both as a weaponized kind of empathy for the audience. Despite the double billing though, this is Pattinson’s film to run away with. He plays beleaguered characters in such note perfect ways, and his level of self-imposed anxiety and difficulties border on farcical in the best way. You’d almost believe his full name was Charlie Brown. Athie and Haim are good in their own supporting ways, with Athie’s calming voice and warmth juxtaposing against Haim’s truly snide and hateful behavior throughout the second half of the film. She walks away being one of the most hateable characters in recent memory. Special shoutout goes to Jordyn Curet (“Home Economics”) as a young Emma, seen in multiple flashbacks, who manages to pull the same kind of dark humor and empathy from a role seen for probably about five minutes total.

There’s a very deft hand on display with the film’s editing, especially in the first half, and Borgli and editor Joshua Raymond Lee (“Ripley (2024),” “Monsterland”) really take advantage of the nature of the craft to layer on the character’s psyche and anxiety. Flashbacks are used expertly throughout, both to zero in on Emma’s state of mind and to further draw into the dark comedy. It creates a spider web of crisscrossing emotions that further add to the film’s central ideas of challenging empathy. What decisions are excusable, which are not, and still finding ways to elicit uncomfortable laughter throughout it all. Daniel Pemberton’s (“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” “The Trial of the Chicago 7”) score backs up this feel by crafting a wonderful and lightly tense musical undercurrent with little more than string instruments.

If you’re in the know and saw the name Ari Aster listed as a producer in the opening credits, that should give some clue as to what kind of film “The Drama” is. It is certainly dramatic, and its two leads manage to walk a thin line between some genuinely distressful relationship discussions and the inherent dark comedy of it all. There’s something genuinely insightful going on here about manufactured empathy and what someone’s true intentions really mean, but Borgli’s latest film manages to pull of a hat trick: it turns those themes into an engrossing a wickedly funny tale of anxiety, without sacrificing either. It’s the film equivalent of a whispered piece of gossip, told dripping with delicious drama. 4.5/5

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie - Review: Spaced Out

 

Expectations are the death of criticism. For as many genre bending, high quality works of cinema that release each year, there are arguably even more films that come out that are seemingly critic proof. You get what you pay for, as they say. 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was, like plenty of Illumination’s others, one such film. It was fun and breezy, brightly colored and high energy. But also riddled with its own myriad of problems that prevented the first animated film featuring Nintendo’s overall wearing Italian super star from being a slam dunk quality wise. I say quality wise because none of that prevented it from leveling up to a cool $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office. So, inevitably, here comes the sequel.

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” starts with a bang, as the son of Bowser, aptly named Bowser Jr. and voiced by Benny Safdie (“Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” “Oppenheimer”), kidnaps the queen of the cosmos Princess Rosalina, voiced by Brie Larson (“Captain Marvel,” “Short Term 12”). Soon Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy (“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” “The Menu”), hears of this and she and Toad, voiced by Keegan-Michael Key (“Key & Peele,” “Schmigadoon!”)), venture into space to find her. This leaves Mario, voiced by Chris Pratt (“Parks and Recreation,” “The LEGO Movie”), Luigi, voiced by Charlie Day (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “The LEGO Movie”), and their new dinosaur friend Yoshi, voiced by Donald Glover (“Community,” “Atlanta”), to look after the Mushroom Kingdom and the somewhat reformed and still shrunken villainous Bowser, voiced by Jack Black (“School of Rock,” “Kung Fu Panda”). That is, until Bowser Jr. shows up to take his father back, sending that trio on their own galaxy spanning adventure as well.

For all of its criticisms, the first “Super Mario Bros.” movie produced by Illumination had a basic but still functional arc at its core. The brotherly relationship between Mario and Luigi served as a decent enough arc, providing something to get invested in for the moments between the game references. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to provide some kind of catharsis in the third act, earning a bit of pathos. The same cannot be said on this second outing. Despite retaining the first film’s directors, Aaron Horvath (“Teen Titans GO! To The Movies,” “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas”) and Michael Jelenic (“Teen Titans GO! To The Movies,” “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas”), and screenwriter, Matthew Fogel (“Minions: The Rise of Gru,” “The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part”), it’s as if any desire to do anything even perfunctory with the plot had gotten lost in the cosmos.

The film doesn’t exist as a straight narrative, but rather a series of scenes strung together to form the loosest sense of plot. The Mario games aren’t known for having grand stories, but they at least have some sense of momentum. The act of watching “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” feels more like having someone show you their favorite clips of a movie on YouTube: scenes that just begin and end, sometimes feeling like they’ve cut themselves off before they’re supposed to, and giving the impression that there’s a narrative you simply aren’t being shown. Again, you might ask why one would even expect anything else from this kind of movie, but the first film at least had a basic enough plot to build things off of. This feels like characters go where they need to simply because the movie has to continue.

Thankfully, even if the narrative is almost complete mush, the film’s technical elements are truly wonderful. Just like the first film, it’s obvious that these movies are the exception to Illumination’s usual cheap budget rules. Each location is vibrant and gorgeously detailed, with color popping from every frame. It’s a beautiful movie, and Brian Tyler’s (“Now You See Me,” “Transformers One”) musical score gets to breathe new cinematic life into a wide collection of musical motifs originally crafted for the Mario Galaxy games by composers Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo. In one of the clear lessons learned from the first film, the number of 80s needle drops have been significantly reduced (but not eliminated), allowing that classic music to exist in its own right.

The vocal cast is also resoundingly excellent. While Pratt’s Mario is still the weakest link here, it’s certainly an improvement over the first film. Day and Black are still the complete highlight of the package, and Taylor-Joy and Key keep their buddy movie banter going strong. Safdie is a wonderful new addition, playing with some excellently nasally pre-teen angsty as Bowser Jr., and Larson is perfect as Princess Rosalina, utilized far less than one would hope given her excellent performance. A smattering of other notably celebs pop up in minor roles, such as Glen Powell (“The Running Man (2025),” “Anyone But You”) in a role I won’t spoil here, and Luis Guzmán (“Narcos,” “Wednesday (2022)”) as Wart, a character that originally debuted in the much maligned U.S. release of Super Mario Bros. 2.

The fact that a character from that game is featured here is an indicator of just how weird Nintendo has allowed Illumination to get with this sequel. If the first film felt almost too safe by sticking to the most basic elements from the original “Super Mario Bros.” and “Mario Kart” games, this one goes so crazy it’ll make a non-gamer’s head spin. There are a huge number of easter eggs and plot beats pulled from almost every Mario game released over the last three decades like “Odyssey,” “Sunshine,” “Wonder,” “Yoshi’s Island,” “Galaxy,” and “World.” It’s an Amos Bouch of the weirdest and wildest bits of this franchise’s best games, all thrown together in highly detailed and gorgeous Hollywood animation.

And yet… it all feels paper thin. Even if the first film wasn’t perfect, it felt like it was trying to prove something. It had moments of calm, arcs for the titular brothers, and a genuine sense of love for the franchise. That love isn’t gone from “Galaxy” but it feels misplaced. Now that these filmmakers know just how successful this film is almost guaranteed to be, it’s as if they don’t even want to try. As a perfect example: the first film had the wonderful surprise that was Bowser’s “Peaches” song that took the internet by storm. Not only is there no such moment of oddball creativity here, it feels like the team that made “Galaxy,” despite being the same people, would never even attempt something like that. A moment that slow, that takes time away from referencing another Mario game? Why would they bother?

And why would one bother caring? This film is destined to make buckets of cash for Nintendo, Universal, and Illumination, and if the post-credits teases are any indication, they have no intention of slowing down anytime soon. And why should they? Even in its lessened state, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” should prove easy entertainment for kids and almost anyone who’s held some form of a Nintendo controller over the last thirty years. Its plot might be paper thin and lacking in any sort of substance, but its gussied up in some truly gorgeous art, music, and vocal performances. Expectations are the death of criticism. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” won’t be hurt by its less than stellar quality, but these fans, young and old, deserve more than some expertly polished space junk. 2.5/5