Category: Film Reviews by Amy

So many nominees, so many streaming platforms

Every Oscar season is a little bit weird.

Some years, it feels like every nominee came out in the final month of the year. Some years, it feels like the winners have been known for so long there’s no real contest. Some years — my least favorite kind of years — a significant number of nominations aren’t available at all for the movie-going public until months after the award ceremony, when you’ve completely forgotten about the movies.

This year, most of the movies are fairly accessible, and not just in the “if you’re willing to drive to Boston” sense but accessible even if you aren’t completely comfortable leaving your house just to fill out your Oscar ballot (nominees were announced March 15 and the awards will be handed out April 25). In last week’s issue of the Hippo, I laid out how to find the feature films in many of the major categories. As of this Friday, March 26, when The Father will hit VOD, the only nominee in the best picture, animated feature or acting categories that you can only see in theaters is Judas and the Black Messiah (which was on HBO Max for a month). Find my full listing of those films on page 33 of last week’s paper. One update: Minari, nominee for best picture and in five other categories, is also available via Red River Theatres’ virtual cinema; see redrivertheatres.org for information.

Here are some of the “odds and ends” releases — some more of the feature films outside the best picture and acting categories that managed to snag a nomination or two.

• News of the World This Tom Hanks downbeat Western is, you know, fine. Hanks plays a Hanks character carrying a bunch of grief through post-Civil War Texas as he tries to bring an orphaned girl to her family. The movie received nominations for cinematography, original score, production design and sound and is available to purchase. It’s not the best movie night you’ll ever have but it’s also not the worst.

• GreyhoundI feel like this is a good place to mention the other Tom Hanks 2020 release that is both respectable and sorta forgettable. Hanks plays a World Ward II Navy captain who is leading a convoy of ships through the Nazi-sub-filled Atlantic Ocean. This movie, which is nominated for sound, is basically a chase movie and the only character who really matters is “Captain Tom Hanks.” It is absolutely fine while you watch it — which you can on Apple TV+— and will vanish from your mind almost as soon as it’s done.

• EmmaAnya Taylor-Joy is the titular Jane Austen heroine in this very fun adaptation that was one of my favorite pre-pandemic 2020 releases. It has a specific look to costumes and set design and it’s no surprise that it received nominations for costume design and makeup and hairstyling. It is currently available on HBO and it is available for purchase.

• Mulan Disney’s live-action Mulan is probably going to be remembered more for how the movie was released (on Disney+ for an extra fee, the first of Disney’s films to be released that way) than the movie itself, which wowed me with its visuals and underwhelmed me with its story. I totally support its nominations for costume design (the costumes are “press pause and gaze” beautiful) and visual effects.

• Pinocchio Roberto Benigni stars as Geppetto in this live-action Pinocchio adaptation (which I haven’t yet seen) that scored two nominations: one for costume design and one for makeup and hairstyling. It is available for rent or purchase and appears to have both an original Italian audio/English subtitles track and an English-dubbed audio track.

• Da 5 Bloods One of the disappointments of this year’s nominations was that this Spike Lee movie didn’t earn any acting nods (in particular for Delroy Lindo). It did get one nomination, original score for Terence Blanchard. The movie is worth seeing, even if it probably needs a big screen to capture all of what Lee was doing; it’s available on Netflix.

• Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga This (and Emma) might be my favorite of the one- or two-off nominations; this sweetly goofy Will Ferrell movie has grown on me since I first saw it, especially the mid-movie song-mash-up featuring assorted Eurovision stars. The song “Husavik,” the big climactic number sung by Elizabeth Banks’ character, Sigrit, is nominated for original song, which hopefully means someone will perform it at the Oscar ceremony. The movie is available on Netflix.

• The Life Ahead Sophia Loren stars in this Italian movie that is still on my “Oscar nominees to watch” list. It’s available on Netflix and has a song, “Lo Sí (Seen),” nominated in the original song category.

• Tenet Christopher Nolan’s timey wimey movie did have some impressive elements, most notably the fight scenes. It makes sense that this movie would garner a visual effects nomination and, sure, production design, why not, for all those sleek locales. It is currently available for rent or purchase and will be on HBO Max May 1.

• The White Tiger This year’s screenplay nods were basically all of the best picture nominees (minus Mank) plus One Night in Miami (which should have been a best picture nominee), Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (I mean, what can you say; 2020 was a year) and this movie, based on the 2008 novel by Aravind Adiga that won the Man Booker Prize. Available on Netflix, The White Tiger features a strong performance by Adarsh Gourav as a man in India attempting to break free of crushing poverty and the demands of his village. It’s an occasionally tough but definitely worthwhile watch with moments of humor.

Featured photo: Emma

Zack Snyder’s Justice League (R)

Warner Brothers asks for a do-over of their 2017 DC supergroup movie and thus presents Zack Snyder’s Justice League, a movie that will make you say, “Oh, now I get it.”

You probably know the widely reported story here: Director Joss Whedon finished the 2017 Justice League after original director Zack Snyder stepped away due to the death of his daughter Autumn (to whom this movie is dedicated). Reshoots led to (1) a terrible moosh-face on Henry Cavill because they had to get rid of his Mission Impossible mustache digitally, (2) what seemed like (still seems like? who knows) the end of the whole Batfleck phase of Batman, and (3) a bunch of Wonder Woman fans (including me) being annoyed at how that movie subjected the mighty warrior to some real shady male-gaze shots.

This “Snyder cut,” as the internet’s been calling it for years, is a re-editing of the film that uses Snyder’s original footage (plus some new scenes shot in 2020, according to various media reports) and sends the Whedon-y stuff (including that distracting “no mustache” face) to the Phantom Zone with Joss himself (who has bigger problems now). The new movie is four hours long (which is twice as long as the original) and has a different Big Bad and a different group dynamic among all the superheroes it brings together. It is also, surprisingly, better and has a more interesting story.

The bones are sort of the same as the 2017 version: Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) — and eventually Superman (Cavill) —come together to fight a scary guy. That guy, Steppenwolf (voice of Ciaran Hinds), comes to Earth searching for three “Mother boxes” that, when put together, create the Unity, which is a glowy thing that looks like some kind of expensive STEM toy and that when activated will burn Earth to a cinder.

The Snyder Cut adds the wrinkle that Steppenwolf’s plans aren’t just scorching for his own gain. He’s attempting to deliver a hellishly terraformed Earth to Darkseid (voice of Ray Porter), an even bigger badder galactic conqueror who is particularly interested in Earth, the one place he was defeated millennia ago. Humans, gods (of the Zeus variety), Amazonians, Atlanteans and at least one Green Lantern worked together to defeat Darkseid and keep him from obtaining a thing hidden on Earth (a magic formula that’s sort of crop-circled into the rock layer of the planet) that would allow him to control everyone and everything in the universe.

Here, we also learn a lot more about each of our heroes. The Flash and Cyborg get mini-origin movies folded in to this tale and we get to know more about Aquaman. Wonder Woman is the character we’d recognize from her standalone films. We learn more about everybody’s individual environments, which means more Themyscira, more Atlantis, more Barry Allen (The Flash) being the peppy fun ray of sunshine that this movie needs. We also see more about their motivations for joining Bruce Wayne’s frantic quest to create a band of Earth protectors, and the “death” of Superman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice becomes more meaningful both emotionally and for this movie’s plot. And while the movie jettisons the quippiness that was so at odds with the bleakness in the 2017 movie, it manages some surprising lightness and even moments of optimism.

I’m not sure how this was all ever going to fit in one movie. (Maybe by regular-speed-ing the slow motion? There is a lot of slow-mo here.) I can see exactly how it would fit into two movies, like Justice League and Justice League: Darkseid or something, one a little over two hours and one a little under two hours. The movie is also divided into parts — six parts and an epilogue, so if four hours feels like too much you could watch it a few “episodes” at a time. While I (surprisingly) enjoyed watching the movie in one sitting, I don’t think it’s necessary to consume it that way. There are a lot of little moments, a lot of Easter eggs that set up interesting possibilities even if you don’t know every bit of comic book lore.

There are several articles out there on the internet (including a pretty fascinating one on vanityfair.com) that explain how this movie was meant to be the middle of this particular series of DC movies and how this story set up two films that were to have come after. The most miraculous accomplishment of Zack Snyder’s Justice League is that it left me more than a little interested in seeing those two movies. B

Rated R (though I can’t figure out by whom it is rated or specifically why, I suspect for language; though ultimately rather hopeful for a Snyder movie, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is at least as dark as The Dark Knight). Directed by Zack Snyder with a screenplay by Chris Terrio, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is four hours and two minutes long and is available on HBO Max.

Sound of Metal (R)

A drummer suddenly loses his hearing in Sound of Metal, a superbly well-crafted movie that has been nominated for six Oscars.

Ruben (Riz Ahmed) is a drummer in a duo with his girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) who goes from experiencing some fleeting auditory weirdness to sudden loss of almost all his hearing. It’s during a gig that he’s forced to finally tell Lou that he’s lost about 75 percent of his hearing and likely to lose more. Ruben and Lou’s life seems built around their music — they live and tour in an Airstream and the concerts appear to be their main (and only, probably) form of income.

Thus faced with the loss of what Ruben feels is his whole life, Ruben is understandably panicked and Lou is afraid that this will affect his sobriety (we learn he is four years in recovery from heroin use). Ruben’s sponsor helps get him into a recovery program for people who are deaf. Though he initially resists, Ruben decides to stay — meaning that Lou must leave him — and spends weeks learning, as the program’s leader Joe (Paul Raci) puts it, how to be deaf. We see him learn sign language and teach kids drumming. But his urge to get back to his life — music, touring, Lou — never subsides.

Ahmed, who along with Raci received one of this movie’s two acting nominations, is absolutely excellent here. (This is a particularly strong leading actor year; Ahmed, Chadwick Boseman and Stephen Yeun are three standout Oscar nominees.) He does an excellent job conveying the panic and fear that come with discovering something has suddenly changed, dramatically, with your body and its ability to do something you took for granted. He also makes us feel Ruben’s mix of emotions as he learns how to navigate his life with greatly reduced hearing but also still yearns to get back to his life as he knew it.

Also nominated for film editing, original screenplay and best picture, Sound of Metal feels like a sure-thing win in the sound category (this year, sound mixing and sound editing have been combined into one category). The movie masterfully weaves the world as Ruben hears it into the story, putting us in his head and letting us experience his frustrations and his moments of joy. A

Rated R for language throughout and brief nude images, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Darius Marder with a screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder, Sound of Metal is two hours long and distributed by Amazon (where it is available via Prime Video).

Featured photo: Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Where to see the 2021 nominees

We finally have the Oscar nominees for 2020 films.

Announced March 15, it’s a pretty solid list for such a weird year (films from first two months of 2021 were also eligible; the Oscar ceremony is scheduled for April 25). Most of the early-2020 hopefuls (Elisabeth Moss for The Invisible Man, anything for First Cow or Never Rarely Sometimes Always or The Forty-Year-Old Version) didn’t make an appearance on the list but late-season favorites like Minari, Promising Young Woman, Judas and the Black Messiah and Nomadland have heavy award presence.

And now the fun really starts: seeing all the nominees. Many of this year’s big nominees had their “opening weekends” on streaming services so most are relatively easy to find. Here’s how to see the films in the big feature film categories:

Best picture

• The Father — This movie is in theaters (as close as the AMC Methuen, according to Fandango) now and will be available via video on demand on Friday, March 26. The movie also received nominations for lead actor (Anthony Hopkins), supporting actress (Olivia Coleman), film editing and production design.

• Judas and the Black Messiah — This Fred Hampton biopic was on HBO Max for a month when it was first released and is now in theaters. It also received two supporting actor nominations (for Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield) and nominations for cinematography, original song and original screenplay.

• Mank — This Citizen-Kane-behind-the-scenes tale of old Hollywood is available on Netflix and also received nominations for lead actor (Gary Oldman), supporting actress (Amanda Seyfried), cinematography, costume design, directing (by David Fincher), makeup and hairstyling, original score, production design and sound.

• Minari — This beautiful story of a Korean American family is in theaters (in the Boston area) and available for rent via VOD. It also received nominations for lead actor (Stephen Yeun), supporting actress (Yuh-Jung Youn), directing (Lee Isaac Chung), original score and original screenplay.

• Nomadland— This tale of a woman dealing with her losses while living as a nomad (she travels from job to job living in her van) is in theaters (including in Keene Cinemas) and on Hulu. It also received nominations for lead actress (Frances McDormand), cinematography, directing (Chloé Zhao), film editing and adapted screenplay.

• Promising Young Woman — This searing (but at times bleakly humorous) tale of grief and vengeance is in theaters (in the Boston area) and available for rent via VOD. It also received nominations for lead actress (Carey Mulligan), directing (Emerald Fennell — and yes you read that right, two female director nods this year!), film editing and original screenplay.

• Sound of Metal — This movie about a musician who loses his hearing is available via Amazon Prime and was also nominated for lead actor (Riz Ahmed), film editing, sound and original screenplay.

• The Trial of the Chicago 7 — Aaron Sorkin’s very Sorkin-y movie about the 1968 Democratic Convention protests is available on Netflix and is also nominated for supporting actor (Sacha Baron Cohen), cinematography, film editing, original song and original screenplay.

Other movies with acting nominations

• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — This Netflix release based on an August Wilson play garnered nominations for lead actress (Viola Davis) and is the last chance to honor Chadwick Boseman, who was nominated for lead actor. The movie also received a nomination for costume design and production design.

• One Night in Miami… — This Amazon Prime movie based on a Kemp Powers play got Leslie Odom Jr. a supporting actor nominatinon as well as an original song nomination and an adapted screenplay nomination.

• The United States vs. Billie Holiday — This biopic of Holiday is a bit of a mess but Andra Day’s performance as the singer makes it worth watching; it’s available now on Hulu.

• Pieces of a Woman — Vanessa Kirby is excellent in this Netflix release about grief (at least she is in the hour and 40-ish minutes of the movie I watched; I guess now I need to make myself watch the harrowing first 30 minutes of the movie).

• Borat Subsequent Moviefilm — I think, years from now, this movie, available on Amazon Prime, is going to be a time capsule of weirdness, with all the Trump and Covid and political conspiracy stuff crammed into this “hidden” camera comedy. Maria Bakalova, who plays Borat’s “teenage” daughter, is nominated for supporting actress, and the movie also received a nomination for adapted screenplay.

• Hillbilly Elegy — Glenn Close gets her eight Oscar nomination (no wins yet) for her role in this mess of wigs and accents and arm’s-length storytelling. I think we all agree she deserves an award for a movie. See Hillbilly Elegy if you want, I guess, like if you’re an Oscar completist, on Netflix.

Animated feature films

• Onward — This movie opened right before Everything but quickly made its way to Disney+ early in the pandemic, which is probably why I had completely forgotten about this Pixar movie about suburban-y magical creatures (elves, centaurs, cyclopses, etc.) and two teens brothers on a quest to have their late father back for one day.

• Over the Moon — It’s another movie about a kid dealing with the loss of a parent. For reasons I can’t remember, I only made it about halfway through this movie during my one attempt to watch it (though I do remember some very pretty visuals). The movie is available on Netflix.

• A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon — This might be my favorite of the category. This G-rated movie is beautiful to look at, fun for adults (sci-fi pop culture jokes) and kids (burps!) and manages to be extremely clever and sweet while also not really having any dialogue. The mischievous but kind Shaun the Sheep meets a lost alien in this Netflix release that felt pretty all-ages friendly (a rarity even among kid fare).

• Soul — This late-2020 Pixar release, available on Disney+, looks and sounds absolutely beautiful and while it’s probably OK for most kids, scary-stuff-wise (there are some creatures that might freak out some of the youngest movie viewers) my middle-elementary-school-aged kid did get bored with some of the parts where the main character agonizes about his career and what constitutes a life’s purpose.

• Wolfwalkers — This Apple TV+ movie is definitely not for the littlest kids — the wolves can be scary, the British officials ruling Ireland are scarier. But for middle-elementary and up this movie with picture-book-like illustrations and feisty girl central characters (one is an English girl who has come to Ireland with her wolf-hunting father; one is an Irish girl who can also turn into a wolf) is beautiful and thoroughly engrossing.

Featured photo: Minari

Yes Day (PG)

Jennifer Garner stars in Yes Day, a delightful family comedy about wacky hijinks on a day when kids pick the fun.

Or put another way, Jennifer Garner plays a mom in a waking nightmare of a horror story about a lady going through some stuff personally and professionally who is bullied by her family into participating in some internet nonsense to prove she can still loosen up and have fun — you know what would be fun how about someone else do the laundry for a change, dishes don’t wash themselves, don’t want to see Mom erupt in a rage volcano when she steps on a Lego how about you PICK UP THE LEGOS.

It is possible this movie touched a nerve.

When the Torres children — young teen Katie (Jenna Ortega), tween Nando (Julian Lerner) and young Ellie (Everly Carganilla) — complain that their mom, Allison (Garner), always says “no” to everything they want to do, she makes a deal with them. If they approach their kid duties (chores, homework) with more gusto, they will earn a Yes Day, a 24-hour period where the parents won’t say no to any of their plans or desires, within legal, geographical and financial limits. (Their “mom says no” complaints are documented both in a haiku Katie writes for school and a movie Nando makes calling his mom a dictator for, among other things, losing her cool when she steps on Legos.) And even though that sounds exhausting, Allison approaches the day with excitement because it means spending non-nagging time with her family, most significantly with independence-seeking Katie and with work-absorbed husband Carlos (Edgar Ramírez). Allison, a former sky-dive and backpack-the-world type, is also under some stress outside the home as her attempts to reenter the workforce have not been successful.

A lot of cute giant ice cream sundae-eating and paintball-ish game-playing ensues. The actors here have good family chemistry, with Ortega believably walking that teen line between having fun with siblings and parents while still wanting to do mature things with her friends, and the other kids turning in cute but not cloying performances. Ramírez turns in a completely fine “likeable dad” performance, even if his character gets the least to do of the bunch. Perhaps because of movies like Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day and her Capital One ads, I’ve come to think of Garner more as a mom character than as her Alias action hero but here she reminds you can she can pull off physical comedy and action-y moments as well as more sitcom-y moments of humor.

Even with a side plot involving Katie and her plans to go to a music festival with some friend’s cousin and some older-dude friends, the movie is basically focused on wholesome goofiness. Wholesome goofiness and carpet-destroying foam — but I don’t think everybody who watches this is going to spend quite as much time thinking “how are they going to get that out of the car upholstery” and “does homeowners insurance cover that” as I did. But then maybe that’s a sign that I need a Yes Day. (No.) B

Rated PG for some rude and suggestive material, and brief language, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Miguel Arteta with a screenplay by Justin Malen (based on the book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld), Yes Day is an hour and 26 minutes long and is available on Netflix.

Cherry (R)

Tom Holland plays a young man who falls into addiction in Cherry, a movie directed by Russo brothers Anthony and Joe of Marvel movies fame.

Specifically, they directed the Captain Americas Winter Soldier and Civil War and two Avengers — Infinity War and Endgame.I mention this because it’s hard not to watch this movie as “Anthony and Joe Russo show they can do something not Marvel” or maybe as “Anthony Russo and Joe Russo bring popcorn movie flash to a downbeat story.”

We first see Holland, whose character isn’t called by name in the movie, as he prepares to rob a bank, explaining his actions to us in narration that is weaved through the movie. The bank robbery serves as bookends to his short (in years) life story, starting when he is aimlessly attending college and meets Emily (Ciara Bravo), the girlfriend who quickly becomes his wife, through a stint in the Army and into his post-Army years of PTSD, heroin addiction and crime.

The bare bones of Cherry are a thoroughly depressing story that the movie manages to add humor (dark humor) to and that is warmed up by Holland, who I think does an above average job as a kid who seems a little bit like he’s blown by the wind through his life.

Bravo, whose Emily feels more like Holland’s character’s projection of her than she does like a fully formed person, feels sort of sleepy throughout. Their relationship is one of the cores of this movie but her wispiness prevents us from ever really understanding why she stays with Holland or why the relationship is so important to him.

I wasn’t bothered by the movie’s general storytelling showiness, all strange comic/tragic asides, stylized shots and fourth-wall-breaking narration. Perhaps at a runtime shorter (significantly shorter) than two hours and 22 minutes the style of the movie and the general solid-ness of Holland’s performance would be enough to keep things moving and to make the movie’s points (assuming the elements about the military, the war, careless opioid prescription and the socioeconomics of a gray-looking Cleveland are points the movie’s trying to make and not just, like, story-telling accessories). But you feel this movie’s lengthy runtime and it doesn’t always provide you with a good reason why you are lingering in this or that moment. As a result, a lot of the more stylish elements end up feeling like padding.

Cherry isn’t a bad movie but the result of all this moviemaking style put on a relatively thin story is that you feel like you’re getting about four inches of elaborate frosting on one inch of cake. C+

Rated R for graphic drug abuse, disturbing and violent images, pervasive language and sexual content, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Directed by Anthony Russo and Joe Russo with a screenplay by Angela Russo-Otstot and Jessica Goldberg (from the novel Cherry by Nico Walker), Cherry is two hours and 22 minutes long and is available on Apple TV+.

Featured photo: Yes Day

Raya and the Last Dragon (PG)

Awkwafina voices a dragon and Kelly Marie Tran voices a warrior in Raya and the Last Dragon, a beautifully animated Disney movie in theaters and available via Disney+.

Similar to Mulan, this movie is available for an extra fee to Disney+ subscribers: $29.99 to see the movie before it becomes available to all subscribers on May 4. The fee allows you to watch it as many times as you like, something my kids took full advantage of this weekend.

The movie is set in the fictional land Kumandra, which feels like it is to Southeast Asia what Frozen’s Arendelle is to northern Europe. As Raya (voice of Tran) explains, Kumandra was once a land of harmony and dragons. But smoke creatures called the Druun sucked away much of the life from the land and turned people and dragons to stone. Sisu (voice of Awkwafina), the final dragon, used the last of her powers to create a gem that was able to banish the Druun and un-stone the people — but not the dragons.

The people responded to this brush with annihilation by fighting with each other over the gem and breaking into five kingdoms — Fang, Talon, Spine, Tail and Heart. Heart guarded the dragon gem, which caused mistrust in the other four kingdoms, who were constantly at odds with each other.

Thus is the state of things for centuries until Heart’s Chief Benja (voice of Daniel Dae Kim) tries to get all the kingdoms to come together. He has trained his daughter, Raya, to be a warrior who protects the dragon gem but also has tried to convince her that a rebuilding of trust between the five groups is necessary for the long-term survival of all people.

Naturally, Raya’s first attempts at trust — she thinks she’s found a friend in fellow dragon-fan Namaari (voice of Gemma Chan), the daughter of Fang leader Virana (voice of Sandra Oh) — do not go great. The dragon gem is cracked (with each group grabbing a piece) and the Druun are set loose upon the land again (and return to their turning-people-into-stone ways). Raya ends up on her own, out in the wilderness. (Raya and Namaari are maybe tweens or young teens during this flashback and six years older during the movie’s present day.)

After years of questing, Raya finds Sisu, who reawakens and admits that while she may be the “last” dragon she wasn’t really the “best” dragon, skills-wise. Raya and Sisu decide to undertake another quest: to find the pieces of the dragon gem, each of which contains a magical power from Sisu’s more powerful siblings, and bring them together to give Sisu the power to defeat the Druun (and bring back the people and dragons turned to stone and just generally save the world). Along the way, Raya gathers a crew: kid chef Boun (voice of Izaac Wang), baby pickpocket Noi (voice of Thalia Tran) and her hench-monkeys, and Spine warrior Tong (voice of Benedict Wong). Trailing this group are Namaari and her army. Fang is very determined to pursue a dragon-gem-as-deterrent-weapon policy and seeks to control more of the gem pieces.

Raya and the Last Dragon is absolutely beautiful to look at with some lovely world-establishing in its creatures (the colorful dragons, Raya’s armadillo-y pet), in its landscapes (which vary by kingdom), and in its mythology. Disney animation continues to wow with how it executes little details, such as how it renders water (which here behaves in all sorts of magical ways around dragons and their power). There is also something very Marvel-esque in the way it presents some of the action and the establishing shots, and in how the team came together (I got some serious Guardians of the Galaxy vibes at times).

The score is also very beautiful with melodies that really add some extra oomph to more emotional moments. This movie just missed this 2020’s Oscar contention cutoff (extended until Feb. 28 for the April awards) but I fully expect both this movie and its score to be in serious awards consideration next year.

I saw this movie several times throughout the weekend and while my initial reaction was to wonder if all the questing and history of Kumandra crowded the characters and their emotional arcs, I found that I appreciated this movie’s story-telling and rich world-building more with each viewing. These are solid characters; Raya, Sisu (who is sometimes a dragon and sometimes an Awkwafina-esque human) and Namaari all get interesting arcs that help examine the movie’s themes of trust and how a society at odds can find a way to work for the greater good and the difficulties of doing so. (Add this movie to the list of movies bringing me back to The Good Place and its “what we owe to each other” ruminations.) Even the supporting players (the con-artist baby and her monkeys, the Drax-like Tong, the cautious Virana) get enough space to add something to the emotional fabric of the story. It’s sophisticated stuff — delivered with visuals that look great no matter the size of the screen you’re seeing them on and in a kid-friendly way with the right amount of funny baby and animal antics. A

Featured photo: Raya and the Last Dragon (PG)

Minari (PG-13)

A Korean-American family seeks a path to financial security in rural Arkansas in Minari, an excellent family drama.

While the movie feels like it is telling this story from the point of view of David (Alan Kim), the elementary school-aged youngest child of the Yee family, we get a good glimpse at the inner lives of all the family members. Mom Monica (Yeri Han) is horrified when her husband, Jacob (Steven Yeun), pulls up to the family’s new plot and presents her with a rickety-looking trailer sitting in a field. They have moved from urban California to very rural Arkansas in what seems like the early 1980s to chase Jacob’s dream of having a farm. Specifically, he plans to grow Korean vegetables and sell them to businesses in Korean communities in regional cities, like Houston or Oklahoma City. We get the sense that Jacob (who, like Monica, has immigrated from Korea; the kids seem to have been born in the U.S.) has some experience with farming but not nearly enough experience with convincing Monica of his plan. To pay the bills while he starts his farm, the couple works, as Jacob complains at one point, staring at chicken butts all day — that is, they sort the male and female chicks. David and older sister Anne (Noel Kate Cho) seem to adapt to this new environment, amusing themselves by poking around the family’s land or watching TV while drinking Mountain Dew.

When Monica’s not worrying about their financial precariousness, she is worrying about David, who has a heart murmur and has been told not to run or do the strenuous kid stuff he naturally wants to do. Their new home is an hour away from the nearest hospital, a fact that adds to Monica’s worries.

When the threat of a tornado nearly breaks the wound-tight Monica, Jacob tries to placate her by telling her to bring her mother to live with them. Monica seems embarrassed to have her mother see her family’s circumstances but Grandma, Soon-ja (Yuh-Jung Youn), treats the whole situation as kind of a hoot, teaching David to play a Korean card game and swear in Korean, watching American wrestling and planting minari in the wild near a pond on the property.

This is such a relatable family and such a relatable story — the dad who needs to succeed beyond his nine-to-five, the mom who feels the weight of her kids’ safety and well-being, the kids torn between their American culture and their parents’ culture, the fish-out-of-water can-we-make-the-best-of-it-or-will-this-break-us scenario. I felt like I knew these characters very quickly and could see all the perspectives and life experience that went into their reactions and decisions. Monica and Jacob have several fights where you can see both sides and can empathize deeply with both of them. Han and Yeun do absolutely excellent work to show us everything about what their characters are thinking or fearing with just a look or a small gesture. The surrounding actors do good work too — Kim is so believable as David, with the exact right amount of kid fear, kid adaptability and kid mischievousness. Youn as the grandmother is also fantastic — you’re not a real grandma, David complains, which Soon-ja gleefully takes as a compliment.

The movie is also shot beautifully — you can see why Monica is aghast that this creaky trailer is the family’s new home but the movie also shows us the home and land in the same light Jacob sees it, his garden of Eden he says, only half joking, at one point.

Minari isn’t just another awards-season movie that deserves its praise; it’s a standout movie that completely immerses you in a family’s life. A+

Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and a rude gesture, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Lee Issac Chung, Minari is an hour and 55 minutes long and distributed by A24. It is available for rent.

Featured photo: Minari