While Trolls Band Together works as an innocuous piece of children’s entertainment, it’s official that the popular animated series may be finally spinning its wheels and overreaching for ideas. Resident franchise directors Walt Dohrn (Trolls World Tour) and Tim Heitz (Trolls Holiday in Harmony) return to helm this sequel that does something the other feature-length movies haven’t done: call attention to itself.
Alice, Darling gives audiences just enough insight into its character driven piece for it to be emotionally moving. The emphasis is only there because I also feel like the movie is missing its first act.
It’s fitting that Trolls World Tour is about accepting outsiders for who they are because, here I am, I’m a critic watching a sequel to an original film I never saw. I heard 2016’s Trolls was a pleasant surprise, but I never got around to finding that out for myself. Luckily for me, I could hop into Trolls World Tour and quickly get the gist of the characters, the imagination, and the amazing animation that…
By: Jessica Goddard A movie unafraid to leave your head spinning from the farfetched quantity of twists, A Simple Favor is fun, well-paced, and stylish. Directed by Paul Feig, it balances elements of a mystery/thriller/dramedy, borrowing from too-many-to-count eerie pop culture phenomena before it. And yet, successfully, it pulls off homage (as opposed to shameless rip-off) time and time again, in a way that feels fresh and full of energy.
There’s a difference between being self-aware and being self-involved – the former usually has more sense than the latter. For instance, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates is aware of its buffoonery, but neglects to be involved in its own idiocy. There’s still a brain behind the immaturity displayed by Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron).
By: Addison Wylie This isn’t the case with most sequels, but Pitch Perfect 2 is bigger in every way, and therefore better in every way. And, no, that isn’t a playful jab at Rebel Wilson and her Fat Amy character. This is a series that needs to rise to the occasion and use all the space around it in order to feel worthy. The film needs to break out of a boxed-in format and use every…
By: Addison Wylie Most of the complimentary things I can say about Rob Marshall’s Into the Woods stem from how inspired its original work is. The broadway musical of the same name (written by James Lapine with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim) interweaves your favourite fairy tales into a story that sprawls over three magical nights. The story then continues with a pragmatic epilogue which results in a topsy-turvy conclusion. Lapine’s musical has a…
