Lepidopterous_

With the full-throttle energy and pacing that fueled Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa blazes through its 2.5-hour runtime to give us the kind of breath-taking epic we have long awaited.

The action sequences are simply spectacular, from the picture & sound editing to all the little intense choreographed moments sprinkled in like Furiosa tilting her gun to look at it after she pulls the trigger on empty. There ARE some moments with noticeable CGI or green screen, which is a problem that Fury Road did not have (it used some but it was never noticeable).

I was excited to hear the "Brothers in Arms" track make a return briefly from Junkie XL (Tom Holkenborg), but tbh his score here is not as good as it was for Fury Road.

Anya Taylor Joy does a marvelous job, especially as the film goes on. The child actor Alyla Brown nails the Furiosa look and more than earns her role with the performance she gives. Child actors are just on another level nowadays. I don't think audiences appreciate just how terrible kids acting used to be in movies lol.

Chris Hemsworth's Dementus is wonderfully over the top and he does a fine job hitting his marks, with solid delivery and, more importantly, no cringe. :) It is also balanced well with the seriousness of the fabulous performance from Lachy Hulme as Immortan Joe (RIP Hugh Keays-Byrne). Tom Burke-who is not Bam Margera as my friend led me to believe during the film-I do wish more was done with this character and his influence on Furiosa.

On that note, the story does leave you feeling like wanting more, as it is very clearly an origin story. And this is not something I was ever left feeling after the first one. It's not that I expected more story... I really didn't. It's just the way the film introduces these compelling threads then doesn't follow any of them.

I remember reading about how for Fury Road, George Miller kept these elaborate profiles for each and every character, no matter how big or small to the story, to keep them genuine in the actors' minds and creating this thoroughly thought-out fictional world of the Wasteland. Perhaps that richness is best left in between the lines here as well, as it's tough to say it would have been advisable to mess with his impeccable pacing-the film's greatest strength.

With the bar being set at perfection, Furiosa is still a great action film and worthy prequel to Fury Road. There is a LOT to love about this product of master craftsmanship from the uniquely talented & visionary George Miller.

Every facet of Poor Things is odd, quirky, and unsettling--and intentionally so. This area is a well-known powerhouse for director Yorgos Lanthimos, and perhaps what is most impressive about it is how smartly crafted everything comes together, from the way various shots are framed all the way down to the witty dialogue and expressions moment to moment. Even the music theme is in a frequent pitch-bend, with each twing grating our ears with discomfort like the insidious Midsommar score by Bobby Krlic. This one goes even deeper down the rabbit hole than The Favourite, with hysterical running gags, fisheye lens, mad science, outrageous characters, and stunning set and costume design as if from a lavish Michel Gondry period piece.

The story has strong vibes of Voltaire's Candide, as the protagonist, a beautiful, young, naive woman, takes an optimistic dive headfirst into a nightmarish world of men and propriety. Emma Stone is tasked to portray a wide range of mental acuity for her character, given a science fiction aspect of the film's premise (one that becomes less and less shocking the more we explore the world around it). It features peak Willem Dafoe, in a memorable role that just seems written entirely for him, and Mark Ruffalo, who expertly plays one of the more overtly satirical figures in the film. The degree to which these three (and others) commit to and embrace the absurdity of their roles in this world is a big part of why everything works as well as it does.

Runtime is 2 hours 21 minutes, yet there is not a dull moment in the film not worth rewatching. You get invested in this wild tale and will not want it to end. It delivers raw, bold, scathing critiques on class, shame, sex, abuse, and dependence--all in impeccably awkward and satirically brilliant form. Like many of his films before it, Poor Things is a robust package of truths about ourselves that are as embarrassing to witness as they are impossible to deny. Yorgos delivers yet another remarkable film of the highest quality. If you've enjoyed his other films, I would not miss this one.

This movie was boring af. The first song is pretty and I appreciated the chalky animation that appears inspired by the Puss in Boots sequel. Beyond that I was bored to tears.

The plot is beat-by-beat, the villain is pure formula & paper-thin, and they don't invest in any running gags or in enriching any side characters. It's as if they had to reach a deadline so put in the minimal effort necessary to get it finished, which left us with a hollow movie devoid of any magic, held together only by its mind-numbingly predictable narrative.

I feel bad for those who worked hard on this film because this could have been a good movie if the studio just took the time to fill it with personality and character. Instead, Wish is a pretty lifeless addition to the Disney canon.

Note: Apparently there has been a hate-train trashing this film trending all over TikTok. It is why my niece already had a well-formulated opinion on the film at Thanksgiving dinner without having even seen it. Sadly, the thoughts she echoed were pretty spot-on, so she just saved me the trouble of warning her against it.