Tag: Mckenna Grace

Review: ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,’ starring Josh Hutcherson, Piper Rubio, Elizabeth Lail, Freddy Carter, Theodus Crane, Wayne Knight, Mckenna Grace and Skeet Ulrich

December 4, 2025

by Carla Hay

Toy Freddy (voiced by Kellen Goff), Elizabeth Lail, Piper Rubio and Josh Hutcherson in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (Photo by Ryan Green/Universal Pictures)

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”

Directed by Emma Tammi

Culture Representation: Taking place in 2002 (with a brief flashback to 1982), in the fictional an unnamed city in Minnesota, the horror film “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (a sequel to 2023’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s” and based on the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” video game franchise) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A man and his 11-year-old sister are pulled back into the horror antics of killer animatronic robots from a defunct family entertainment restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. 

Culture Audience: “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” franchise, the movie’s headliners, and poorly made, repetitive horror movies that have no surprises.

David Andrew Calvillo, Mckenna Grace and Teo Briones in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (Photo by Ryan Green/Universal Pictures)

The lackluster and sloppily made horror flick “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” only manages to confirm two truths in movies: (1) Most sequels are inferior to the original. (2) Most video game adaptations are terrible. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is just a boring and more incoherent rehash of 2023’s “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which was one of the worst horror movies released by a major studio that year.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s” was directed by Emma Tammi and written by Tami, Scott Cawthon (who created the “Five Nights at Freddy’s” video game series) and Seth Cuddeback. For “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” Tammi returns as director, but the screenplay was only written by Cawthon. This is clearly not a case where the creator of a video game can blame other screenwriters for making awful movie versions of the video game.

Is it necessary to see or know what happened in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie before seeing “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2”? Yes. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” has several references to spoiler information that was in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie. The plot of “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” is already messy. Anyone who doesn’t know what happened in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie will be even more confused when watching “Five Nights at Freddy 2.”

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (which takes place in an unnamed city in Minnesota) begins by showing a killing that took place in 1982, at a family entertainment restaurant called Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, which is part of a chain of Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza entertainment restaurants that are similar to the real-life Chuck E. Cheese restaurant chain. (“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” was actually filmed in Louisiana.) Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza has human-sized animatronic figures of animals, including the company mascot: a bear named Freddy Fazbear.

A girl named Charlotte (played by Audrey Lynn Marie), who’s about 11 or 12 years old, is sitting cross-legged near a trap door in the middle of a stage. Charlotte’s best friend Vanessa (played by Miriam Spumpkin) tries to coax Charlotte away from the trap door and invites Charlotte to sit with Vanessa and her friends. Vanessa tells Charlotte that Charlotte shouldn’t think that Charlotte’s deceased mother is “down there,” as in underneath the trap door. Charlotte seems sad and oblivious to what Vanessa is saying.

Charlotte continues to sit by herself when she sees a boy, who’s about 7 or 8 years old (played Logan Horwitz), being lured outside by someone dressed as a yellow rabbit. Charlotte frantically tells several adults what she just witnessed, but they are dismissive of her. Charlotte decides to take matters into her own hands and try to find the boy herself. She sees the yellow rabbit figure in the restaurant’s kitchen, with his back turned while he is using the sink. The boy is unconscious on the floor.

As Charlotte is carrying the boy out of the kitchen, the Freddy figure sees her, chases after her, and then stabs her. Charlotte staggers wounded onto the stage while the rescued boy runs back to his mother. Charlotte falls into the trap door and is next seen when a human-sized marionette figure (whose face somewhat resembles Billy the Puppet from the “Saw” movies) emerges from the trap door and is carrying Charlotte’s dead body. All the people in the room just stare in silence. It looks as phony and unconvincing as it sounds. The Marionette monster becomes one of the serial killers in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” then fast-forwards 20 years later, to 2002. Vanessa has grown up to be a local police officer named Vanessa Shelly (played by Elizabeth Lail), who has recovered from the injuries that she received in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, which took place in the year 2000. As already revealed in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, Vanessa is the daughter of William Afton (played by Matthew Lillard), a serial killer of children in the 1980s. William would lure his victims from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza while he was dressed as a character named Yellow Rabbit. (It’s the same murderer who killed Charlotte.) William appears in a few hallucinations and in a brief dream sequence in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.”

In the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie, the souls of William’s victims haunted the killer animatronic toys at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, which shut down back in the early 1980s, when kids started disappearing from there. A financially struggling young man named Mike Schmidt (played by Josh Hutcherson) took a job as a security guard at the shuttered and abandoned Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mike’s parents are deceased, so he is the guardian of his younger sister Abby Schmidt (played by Piper Rubio), who was 9 years old in the first “Five Nights at Freddy’s” movie. Mike and Abby discovered the secrets of the animatronic toys that came to life.

Abby grew emotionally attached to the animatronic toys that included Freddy (voiced by Kellen Goff), who makes his return in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2.” “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2″ has also has these animatronic toys that go on a murderous rampage with Freddy and The Marionette: yellow chicken Chica (voiced by Megan Fox); red pirate fox Foxy (also voiced by Goff); and blue rabbit Bonnie (voiced by Matthew Patrick). In Five Nights at Freddy’s 2,” Abby (who is now 11 years old) misses interacting with her animatronic “friends,” so she secretly attempts to revive them.

And what a coincidence: Abby (who is a student at East Lake Middle School) is learning robotics in her science class, which has a mean-spirited teacher named Mr. Berg (played by Wayne Knight), whose fate in the movie can easily be predicted. A lot of kids in the community want to go to a Fazfest event that is a morbid tribute to the animatronic toys from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza. Mr. Berg has strictly forbidden his students from going to Fazfest, which is taking place at the same time as the East Lake Middle School science fair that Mr. Berg is requiring the students to attend. For the past three years, Mr. Berg has been the teacher of the class that wins the science fair’s competition, and he wants to win again this year.

Meanwhile, three teenagers who have a TV show called “Spectral Scoopers” (for paranormal investigations) have gone to the original Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza location (which is still run-down and abandoned) to film what they find there. The three teenagers are Lisa (played by Mckenna Grace), Rob (played by David Andrew Calvillo) and Alex (played by Teo Briones), who seem to be the only people working on this low-budget show, which is mostly likely on a public-access channel. Alex is the camera operator and Lisa and Rob are the hosts. The three teens (who are mostly generic characters) are taken to this location by a creepy guy named Michael (played by Freddy Carter), who is obviously up to no good. Michael has a secret that is eventually revealed toward the end of the movie.

“Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” has a flimsy story with many plot holes, basically showing that the murderous animatronic toys are looking for new souls to inhabit them. Therefore, the movie is just a bunch of chase scenes with some people getting killed or having their souls stolen by the serial killer toys. The movie’s visual effects aren’t very impressive. And the scares are very limp, cliché and uninteresting.

Supporting characters in “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” include Mike’s loyal friend Jeremiah (played by Theodus Crane) and engineer Henry Emily (played by Skeet Ulrich), whose daughter Charlotte was shown murdered in the beginning of the movie. All of the movie’s cast members give mediocre performances, with Rubio making the most effort to have a relatable character. “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” (which has a mid-credits scene that hints at an inevitable sequel) is the epitome of a lazy “cash grab” movie whose only creative accomplishment is making “Five Nights at Freddy” one of the most boring and most idiotic horror movie franchises of all time.

Universal Pictures will release “Five Nights at Freddy’s 2” in U.S. cinemas on December 5, 2025.

Review: ‘Anniversary’ (2025), starring Diane Lane, Kyle Chandler, Madeline Brewer, Zoey Deutch, Phoebe Dynevor, Mckenna Grace, Daryl McCormack and Dylan O’Brien

October 29, 2025

by Carla Hay

Kyle Chandler and Diane Lane (both standing) in “Anniversary” (Photo by Owen Behan/Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)

“Anniversary” (2025)

Directed by Jan Komasa

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area, from 2024 to 2029, the dramatic film “Anniversary” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: A tight-knit family is disrupted when a woman, who eventually marries into the family, writes a best-selling book that becomes the bible of a cult-like movement that turns the United States into a totalitarian nation that punishes people for dissenting.

Culture Audience: “Anniversary” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and heavy-handed, soap-opera-type dramas about people in an oppressive society.

Kyle Chandler and Diane Lane in “Anniversary” (Photo by Owen Behan/Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate)

“Anniversary” has a provocative concept about a family affected by the U.S. becoming a massive cult that’s ruled by a totalitarian government. This misguided drama turns into a clumsy mess with hokey and insipid plot twists rushed into the last 20 minutes. The plot twists are not ridiculous on their own, but ridiculous in how they are presented.

The plot twists happen so quickly and melodramatically in the story, it kind of ruins the movie. Meanwhile other parts of the story have huge gaps of missing information that should be in the film. “Anniversary” has the benefit of a talented cast (most of whom give serviceable yet often over-wrought performances), but the cast members are stuck in a movie that is determined to hammer home its points while frequently dropping the hammer.

Directed by Jan Komasa and written by Lori Rosene-Gambino, “Anniversary” takes place from 2024 to 2029, in the Washington, D.C./Maryland area. The movie was actually filmed in Ireland. “Anniversary” has some big ideas, but the movie is quite lazy in developing most of the characters in the family at the center of the story.

“Anniversary” begins by showing a woman in her late 20s rehearsing a greeting in front of a mirror. Her name is Elizabeth “Liz” Nettles (played by Phoebe Dynevor), and she is practicing what she is going to say when she meets the married parents of her boyfriend at the parents’ 25th wedding anniversary party, which will be held at the parents’ Maryland home. “It’s lovely to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Taylor” Liz says in her rehearsed speech, as she adds a congratulations on the spouses’ 25th wedding anniversary.

The way this opening scene plays out, it’s very much like a Lifetime movie, where you know immediately that this seemingly demure and soft-spoken woman is cold and calculating with a devious plan. In other words, “Anniversary” makes it obvious from the beginning that Liz is up to no good and is going to be the main instigator of the chaos in this family. Liz isn’t seen for more than half of “Anniversary,” but that’s not the movie’s only problem.

The next scene shows Georgetown University sociology professor Ellen Taylor (played by Diane Lane) giving a lecture to a classroom of students. The title of the lecture is “What Is Culture?” Ellen says, “I am neither a liberal or a conservative. I prefer to be a free artist and nothing more—free from violence and lies.”

Ellen then talks about the absurdity of human conditions when people are forced to confront realities that contradict their world views. “Does that sound familiar to anyone in here?” Ellen smirks. “America today, perhaps?” There’s muttering in the audience that implies many of her students agree with her.

Ellen is one-half of the couple celebrating this 25th wedding anniversary. Ellen’s husband is Paul Taylor (played by Kyle Chandler), who owns a restaurant that is frequented by powerful politicians and bureaucrats. Unlike his often-blunt and confrontational wife Ellen, Paul prefers to be non-confrontational and diplomatic.

Paul’s tendency to want to diffuse conflicts is evident in Paul’s first scene in “Anniversary.” Two customers named Senator Coyle (played by Carl Austin) and Senator Hunt (played by Phelim Drew) are having lunch together at Paul’s restaurant. After Paul warmly greets these two senators, they ask Paul to settle a debate: Does New York or Chicago have better pizza? The senators name a New York restaurant and a Chicago restaurant as an example. Paul tactfully answers that one restaurant has better sauce, while the other restaurant has better pizza crust.

The Taylor couple’s anniversary dinner party has about 50 to 75 people in attendance and is held mainly in the backyard of the couple’s home. All four of the couple’s children are in attendance. Several friends and colleagues of Paul and Ellen are also at the party. During the party, the various dynamics in the family are seen and will have an effect on many things that happen later in the movie.

These are four children of Paul and Ellen:

  • Cynthia Taylor (played by Zoey Deutch) is a high-strung attorney who is very focused on her career. Cynthia and her image-conscious attorney husband Rob Thompson (played by Daryl McCormack) are both environmental lawyers. Rob is eager to start a family, but Cynthia doesn’t think it’s the right time and doesn’t seem to like children at all.
  • Anna Taylor (played by Madeline Brewer) is a famous stand-up comedian who is brash, bawdy and very outspoken. Anna, who is queer or a lesbian, has a tendency to get sexually involved with her female personal assistants. Anna can also be a verbal bully when she wants to feel superior to someone.
  • Josh Taylor (played by Dylan O’Brien) is an aspiring writer who feels like a failure because his first book (a sci-fi novel) has recently been rejected by every publisher where it was pitched. Many people in the family are aware that Josh feels insecure because he’s perceived as not as successful as his over-achieving sisters. Josh has brought his new girlfriend Liz (also known as the future troublemaker) as his date to this party, where Liz will meet Josh’s family for the first time.
  • Birdie Taylor (played by Mckenna Grace), the youngest sibling, is a quiet loner who is an aspiring biologist. (She has a mini-scientific lab that she set up in her bedroom.) In the beginning of the movie, Birdie is about 16 or 17 years old and living with her parents. Birdie has a mutual crush on a schoolmate named Moses Ho (played by Sky Yang), whose immigrant mother does some housework for the Taylor family.

It’s mentioned later on in the movie that Paul and Ellen had their children after getting married. One of the disconcerting things about “Anniversary” is that, except for Birdie, none of these adult children look like they’re under the age of 25 when the 25th anniversary party happens. Cynthia, Anna and Josh all look like they’re in their early-to-mid-30s, as were all the cast members playing these characters when they filmed this movie.

The movie never explains how Cynthia is an attorney if she’s under age 25. Although it’s possible in the U.S. to be a practicing attorney who’s under the age of 25, it’s very rare. In other words, the “Anniversary” filmmakers needed to do a better job of casting people who convincingly look like the ages they’re supposed to be in the movie.

“Anniversary” takes place over five years, but in the beginning of the movie, the adult children look too old for people who are supposed to be in their early-to-mid 20s. There was no effort to change how these characters looked over the years, except for changing some of their hairstyles and wardrobe choices. It’s a failure of imagination from the movie’s director and the movie’s makeup department.

The anniversary party goes smoothly except for some tense moments that involve (you guessed it) newcomer Liz. She gives her rehearsed speech when Josh introduces Liz to his parents. Ellen is polite but a little standoffish to Liz. And there’s a reason why, which the movie reveals in a roundabout way: From 2013 to 2016, Liz was a student at Georgetown University, where Ellen was one of Liz’s professors. Liz dropped out of Georgetown because of a feud she had with Ellen.

The feud started because Ellen took offense to an assignment thesis that Liz wrote about how the United States should have only one political party, in order to increase unity among U.S. citizens. Ellen felt that this thesis was very inflammatory and anti-democratic. Ellen flagged the thesis as problematic, which caused some turmoil with Liz’s academic status at the university. Liz argued that she didn’t do anything wrong, but she seemingly backed off from the fight when she dropped out of Georgetown. Ellen didn’t see Liz again until the anniversary party.

When Josh introduces Liz to his parents, he excitedly tells them that he’s helping Liz work on her upcoming book, which Liz describes as a “self-organizing guide.” Ellen eventually tells Liz at the party that she remembers Liz from when Liz was a Georgetown student. Ellen makes it clear to Liz that she still doesn’t trust Liz because of Liz’s controversial thesis. When Ellen privately tries to warn Josh about Liz, Josh responds by telling Ellen that Liz already told him about the past conflicts between Ellen and Liz, and he wants Ellen to move past any grudges and treat Liz with respect.

Ellen suspects that Liz deliberately got involved with Josh as some kind of revenge against Ellen. She also thinks that Liz has dangerously radical ideas and doesn’t want Josh to be brainwashed by these ideas. Ellen voices these concerns to Paul, who tells Ellen that Ellen is being paranoid. Paul is more willing to accept Liz, whom he thinks is harmless. Paul sees that Liz seems to make Josh happy. And for now, that’s all that matters to Paul, when it comes to Liz.

As the relationship between Liz and Josh gets more serious, Liz sends Ellen a gift in the mail: Liz’s published book. It’s called “Change: The New Social Construct.” Ellen notices that the book’s forward is dedicated to “the haters, the doubters, academic stranglers.” Ellen wryly laughs because she thinks the “academic stranglers” description is a thinly veiled dig at Ellen.

Liz’s “Change” book has the same radical ideas that Liz had in her university thesis. The book touts a belief that society is more likely to be unified and peaceful if there weren’t divisions (such as political parties) and if decisions were made for the common good instead of individual freedoms. Liz’s “Change” book is celebrated and taught as a mission by a mysterious think-tank corporation called the Cumberland Company, where Josh and Liz are hired and eventually become wealthy high-ranking leaders.

“Change” ends up selling 10 million copies and has a widespread fan base that becomes a cult for the ideas preached in the book. The “Change” cult ideology becomes so huge, it takes over all aspects of the U.S. government. All political parties are abolished. Government surveillance is everywhere and is used as evidence to persecute people who don’t follow the “Change” groupthink ideology.

Freedom rights for individuals are discouraged or outlawed. People who question, give criticism, or protest against government policies are put on a government watch list or arrested and often falsely accused of serious crimes. Even the American flag is altered, so that the block of stars is in the middle of the flag instead of the side. The last two-thirds of “Anniversary” are about how these drastic changes in America affect the Taylor family.

One of the Taylor family members goes into hiding, out of fear of being arrested. This disappearance serves as a catalyst for most of the trauma cram that happens near the end of the movie. It should come as no surprise which of the family members are the most resistant to the “Change” cult mentality/lifestyle. However, the movie has a very superficial way of presenting these characters, who are mostly underdeveloped.

Ellen has a meltdown that seems to last for the entire five years, where she is seen becoming addicted to smoking marijuana and posting anti-government rants on the Internet. (Not surprisingly, Ellen gets fired from Georgetown University after she did something “un-American” that was caught on video and went viral.) Paul continues to be passive for most of the story until a certain part where he finally shows some backbone, but it might be too late.

Just as Ellen feared would happen, Josh gets married to Liz, starts a family with Liz, and becomes completely sucked into the “Change” lifestyle and cult beliefs. And yet for all of Ellen’s warnings about Liz, this manipulative “mastermind” isn’t seen for most of the movie. Hardly anything is revealed about Liz’s life before her conflicts with Ellen, which means there’s no explanation for why Liz is the way that she is. The only thing that is told about Liz’s personal background is when Liz and Ellen are talking at the 25th anniversary party, and Liz mentions that she’s an “only child by way of a nasty divorce” and that her rage fuels her writing.

Liz being such a mystery just makes the movie look cowardly or unimaginative about depicting someone who is supposed to be the story’s chief villain. A better movie would’ve shown how Liz was able to quickly grow this empire, in order to make the story more believable. Leaders of large cults almost always have some type of magnetic charisma, but the way Liz is written and portrayed in this movie, she’s as dull as a worn-out dishrag.

It’s never depicted on screen whatever Liz did (besides write a book) in her rapid ascent to not just become a leader of the “Change” cult but also a powerful influencer in government policies. She’s never seen actually “working” or hobnobbing with the highest-ranking people in the U.S. government. (Appearing in commercials for the Cumberland Company doesn’t count.) This vagueness about Liz is an example of how “Anniversary” lacks creativity in having memorable characters.

Instead, “Anniversary” wastes time showing several Taylor family arguments in the consecutive yearly increments portraying what happens in the five-year period since Ellen and Paul’s 25th anniversary party. Ellen and Paul’s wedding anniversary is the marking point for each of the years depicted in the movie. As prickly and perceptive Ellen, Lane gives enough humanity that’s needed for her role. Unfortunately, the other characters in the Taylor family are mostly hollow. O’Brien gives a committed performance as Josh, but the character is written as a sad-sack-turned-villain caricature.

The movie’s greatest disservice is in how it doesn’t show enough of the interior lives of the Taylor sisters. Birdie goes through a transformation that is hinted at early in the movie but never explored in a believable way. The story arcs for Cynthia and Anna are also disjointed and look like brief glimpses of their lives instead of making them look like fully formed human beings with lives worth watching. The pacing of “Anniversary” drags in some areas before the movie careens into a very phony-looking, hysteria-filled climax that is more likely to induce eye-rolling disappointment from viewers instead of the intended mind-blowing awe.

Roadside Attractions and Lionsgate released “Anniversary” in U.S. cinemas on October 29, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 21, 2025.

Review: ‘Regretting You,’ starring Allison Williams, Mckenna Grace, Dave Franco, Mason Thames, Scott Eastwood and Willa Fitzgerald

October 22, 2025

by Carla Hay

Mckenna Grace and Mason Thames in “Regretting You” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Regretting You”

Directed by Josh Boone

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional city of Dylan, North Carolina, in 2024 and 2025 (with flashbacks to 2007), the dramatic film “Regretting You” (based on the novel of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Asian people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A recent widow finds out that her husband and her sister, who died in a car crash together, were having an affair with each other, and the widow’s teenage daughter rebels against her by dating a fellow student against her mother’s wishes.

Culture Audience: “Regretting You” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the book on which the movie is based, and corny melodramas about “difficult” romances.

Allison Williams and Dave Franco in “Regretting You” (Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures)

“Regretting You” is the cinematic equivalent of an overstuffed Baked Alaska. Even with a talented cast, this drama’s tone is too sugary for the subject matter of finding love during grief. A soap-opera-length story is crammed into a feature-length film. The last 15 minutes of the movie are especially horrible at how the movie glosses over and neatly wraps up difficult traumas and messy life transitions.

Directed by Josh Boone and written by Susan McMartin, “Regretting You” is adapted from Colleen Hoover’s 2019 novel of the same name. The movie takes place in the fictional small city of Dylan, North Carolina. (Dylan’s population is a little more than 38,000 people.) “Regretting You” was actually filmed in the Georgia cities of Atlanta and Decatur. Even though most of the characters in the movie grew up in North Carolina, no one in this movie’s cast sounds like they’re from North Carolina. It’s not the only thing in the movie that looks phony.

“Regretting You” begins with a flashback to 2007, when two high-school couples go on a double date to a beach party. Traditional “good girl” Morgan Davidson (played by Allison Williams) and her free-spirited younger sister Jenny Davidson (played by Willa Fitzgerald) are at the party with their respective boyfriends. Morgan’s boyfriend is confident and popular Chris Grant (played by Scott Eastwood), while Jenny’s boyfriend is quiet and slightly nerdy Jonah Sullivan (played by Dave Franco), who is secretly in love with Morgan. Chris, Morgan and Jonah are in their last year of high school, while Jenny is either in her second or third year of high school.

Morgan seems to be aware that she and Jenny have ended up with boyfriends who have personalities that are the opposites of who Morgan and Jenny are. Morgan says so when she jokingly asks Jonah, “How did we end up with our opposites?” Chris is a little bit rude to Morgan when he tells her that he likes her better when she’s drunk. At this party, there’s something else that’s occupying Morgan’s thoughts that’s bigger than Chris’ disrepectful remark. Before going to the party, Morgan took a home pregnancy test and found out that she’s pregnant.

“Regretting You” then fast-forwards 17 years later to 2024. Morgan (whose last name is now Grant) and Chris are now the married parents of 16-year-old Clara Grant (played by Mckenna Grace), who wants to become an actress. The movie never really shows Clara making much of an effort to be an actress, exept for a few brief clips of her reciting lines. Conversations in the movie reveal that Morgan and Chris got married not long after they found out that Morgan was pregnant.

Meanwhile, Jonah is now a teacher at Dylan High School, his alma mater. After he graduated from high school, Jonah moved away and cut off contact with his friends from high school. When Jonah’s father died, Jonah came back to Dylan to attend the funeral.

Jonah and Jenny reconnected at the funeral, they had a sexual encounter, and she got pregnant with their infant son Elijah from that encounter. (The role of baby Elijah is played by twins William Burnham Simmons and Ryan Conner Simmons.) Jonah and Jenny began dating again after this unplanned pregnancy. Jonah moved back to Dylan, he and Jenny moved in together, and they have recently gotten engaged.

The present-day scenes begin with these family members gathered for Morgan’s birthday party, except for Clara, who is running late. Clara is driving on a road when she sees Miller Adams (played by Mason Thames), the schoolmate she’s had a crush on for quite some time. Miller is in on the side of the road and holding a Dylan city limit sign. He indicates that he’s looking for a car ride, so Clara stops.

Miller explains that he needs help moving the sign because his favorite pizza place won’t deliver outside Dylan’s city limits. Miller lives just right outside of Dylan, so he’s been moving the city limit sign so that pizza can get delivered to the house where Dylan lives with his widower grandfather Hank Adams Sr. (played by Clancy Brown), who has some respiratory-related health issues. (Hank is seen wearing oxygen tubes.) It’s later revealed that Hank has cancer.

Clara is secretly thrilled that she’s talking to Miller, who seems to like her too. Miller has a girlfriend named Shelby, who graduated from their high school the year before. Shelby is never seen in the movie, but she frequently calls Miller to check up on him because she’s a nagging and jealous girlfriend. Miller and Clara mildly flirt with each other while pretending that they’re not romantically attracted to each other. And you know what that eventually means in a movie like “Regretting You.”

During their conversation in the car, Clara (who is a high-achieving student) finds out that Miller (who is an average student) is an aspiring filmmaker. Clara tells him that she wants to be an actress, but Clara’s mother Morgan thinks that Clara should choose a more stable career. Clara says that she applied to a drama school anyway because she wants to go to this school instead of a regular university. Clara encourages Miller to pursue his filmmaking dreams.

Clara tells Miller she’s in a hurry to get to her mother’s birthday party. During this sign relocation, one of Clara’s flip-flop shoes accidentally falls into some mud. After they finish what they set out to do with the city limit sign, Miller asks Clara to give him a car ride back to his place. He introduces her to his grandfather and gives her $10 to buy a new set of flip-flops. After Clara leaves, she’s elated to see that Miller has started following her on social media.

Morgan is annoyed that Clara is late to the party. Morgan is also concerned that Clara was with Miller because Miller’s father Hank Adams Jr. is in prison for drug dealing. Miller’s mother died when Miller was a child. Miller is a student of Jonah, who assures Morgan that Miller is a good kid. Morgan isn’t entirely convinced and wants Clara to date someone who comes from a family that doesn’t have the stigma of having a convicted criminal in the family.

Morgan quickly forgives Clara now that the family is all together for the birthday party. It seems like a picture-perfect party, but things are not always what they appear to be. Clara’s relationship with Morgan is somewhat strained because she thinks Morgan is too strict and controlling. Clara confides in Jenny more than Morgan about Clara’s personal life. Clara also feels emotionally closer to her father Chris than with Morgan.

As already revealed in the “Regretting You” trailer, tragedy strikes the family shortly after this birthday party. Chris and Jenny are killed in a car accident where Chris was driving. Jenny and Chris had lied to their family members, by saying they would be at their respective jobs at the time of the accident. The fact that Chris and Jenny were in the same car at the time of the accident is an indication that they were having an affair.

Jonah and Morgan later find proof of this affair. At first, Morgan is more in denial about it than Jonah is, but they both eventually accept the awful truth. Morgan is afraid of Clara finding out this scandalous secret, so she and Jonah agree not to tell Clara. Meanwhile, Clara and Miller get emotionally closer to each other. Jonah and Morgan also become closer, as Jonah encourages Morgan to revive her career aspirations to be an interior designer.

“Regretting You” is a movie that has no suspense whatsoever about what’s going to happen. (The movie’s trailer gives away almost the entire plot.) And although the principal cast members do the best they can, the screenplay they have to work with meanders and stumbles in many places.

The movie’s comic relief usually comes with the character of Clara’s best friend Lexie (played by scene-stealer Sam Morelos), who is more worldly than virgin Clara. Lexie has some one-liners that are laugh-out-loud funny. Other lines of dialogue from other characters are unintentionally funny because they’re so corny and cringeworthy. The movie clumsily struggles to blend the joys of new romance with the sadness of grief.

One of the biggest failings of “Regretting You” is how it makes the grieving process so trivial and overshadowed, in service of having four people rush into romances not long after the deaths of Chris and Jenny. In real life, there’s no official timeline on how long it should take to grieve the death of a loved one, but it seems like the movie’s priorities are warped. For example, later in the movie, Clara gets more upset about being grounded by Morgan than Clara is upset about losing her father and her aunt: the two people whom Clara admired most in life.

The movie has a sappy teen romance that’s forced into a story where family grief becomes just another sidelined plot device. Even worse is how “Regretting You” handles the changing relationship between Morgan and Jonah. This is the type of movie where certain people decide that they’re in love with each other after kissing each other for the first time. It all looks so fake, no matter how much the cast members try to be convincing. (Grace and Franco fare the best in their acting performances.) “Regretting You” is ultimately more interested in schmaltz than substance and has many questionable and eye-rolling choices that oversimplify what would be a painful mess in the real world.

Paramount Pictures will release “Regretting You” in U.S. cinemas on October 24, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on November 25, 2025.

Review: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,’ starring Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts

March 20, 2024

by Carla Hay

Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, Annie Potts, Mckenna Grace, Logan Kim, Dan Aykroyd, James Acaster and Celeste O’Connor in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (Photo by Jaap Buitendijk/Columbia Pictures)

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire”

Directed by Gil Kenan

Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City, the comedy/horror film “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: The Ghostbusters (a ghost-fighting team) battle against an ancient demon with freezing powers, as the mayor of New York City wants to shut down the Ghostbusters for causing destruction and violating various laws. 

Culture Audience: “Ghostbusters” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Ghostbusters” franchise and the movie’s headlines, but the movie doesn’t have a good-enough story to justify its weak new characters and how the movie sidelines too many of the franchise’s likable familiar characters.

Dan Aykroyd and Kumail Nanjiani in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (Photo by Jaap Buitendijk/Columbia Pictures)

Unfocused and overstuffed, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is proof that fan-service nostalgia and too many underdeveloped characters cannot make up for a shoddy story. Bill Murray has the worst jokes in the movie. The fact that the Murray’s Peter Venkman character—who is supposed to be the funniest person in the “Ghostbusters” franchise—is stuck with uninspired, unfunny and embarrassing lines of dialogue in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” tells you all you need to know about what a terrible, wasted opportunity this mess of a movie is.

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is the follow-up to 2021’s “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” a somewhat flawed but still fun reboot of the “Ghostbusters” movie series. Both movies were co-written by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan. Reitman directed “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” Kenan directed “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.”

The “Ghostbusters” series began with 1984’s “Ghostbusters” (still the best movie in the series) and continued with 1989’s “Ghostbusters 2,” with both movies directed by Ivan Reitman (father of Jason Reitman) and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, two of the original “Ghostbusters” co-stars. There is also director Paul Feig’s divisive 2016 “Ghostbusters” reboot, led by an all-female Ghostbusters team, starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon.

The screenwriting is the weakest link in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.” New characters are introduced but they are mostly hollow and have shallow personalities. The “sidekick” teenage characters who were introduced in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”—Podcast (played by Logan Kim) and Lucky Domingo (played by Celeste O’Connor)—have their roles and screen time reduced in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” thereby robbing audiences of getting to know Podcast and Lucky better. And the franchise’s original characters from the first two “Ghostbusters” movies are given flat and unimaginative things to do in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.”

“Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” begins by showing that the core four Ghostbusters, who became a team in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” have relocated from Oklahoma, and are now living at the firehouse that is the Ghostbusters headquarters in New York City. The core four are seismologist and former science teacher Gary Grooberson (played by Paul Rudd); Callie Spengler (played by Carrie Coon), a divorcée who began dating Gary in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”; Trevor Spengler (played by Finn Wolfhard), Callie’s impulsive 18-year-old son; and Phoebe Spengler (played by Mckenna Grace), Callie’s intelligent 15-year-old daughter.

Callie is the daughter of Egon Spengler (played by the late Ramis), who was a member of the original Ghostbusters team. Ramis died in 2014, at the age of 69, from complications from autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis. Phoebe is supposed to be a lot like a young, female version of Egon. She is a self-admitted “science nerd,” who is also a quick problem solver and the person most likely in the group to come up with invention ideas.

Podcast (whose real name is never revealed) and Lucky, who met Trevor and Phoebe when they all went to the same school together in Oklahoma, have also relocated from Oklahoma to New York City. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” never explains why Lucky’s parents (who are never shown or talked about in the film) agreed to this move. Podcast is shown having a brief phone conversation with his parents, who think he is way at summer camp. Podcast and Lucky, who are supposed to still be under 18, are never shown in school in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.” Podcast and Lucky are only in the movie to show up and give occasional help to the core four Ghostbusters.

An opening action scene “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” show Gary, Callie, Trevor and Phoebe chasing a sewer dragon ghost through the streets of New York City. This chase causes a lot of destruction and infuriates Walter Peck (played by William Atherton), the grouchy mayor of New York City. Mayor Peck despises the Ghostbusters and wants to shut down the entire Ghostbusters operation. In the meantime, he punishes them for violating child labor laws, because Phoebe is underage. Gary and Callie are forced to sideline Phoebe from Ghostbuster work. Phoebe is predictably unhappy about this decision, but she finds a way to rebel against her Ghostbusters ban anyway.

One night, Phoebe is playing chess by herself in Washington Square Park (why is she playing chess alone?), when she meets a ghost named Melody (played by Emily Alyn Lind), who died at the age of 16 in a tenement fire. Melody (whose ghostly body can light up in flames because of her fiery death) begins playing chess with Phoebe, who is never afraid of Melody and ends up becoming friendly with Melody. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” drops major hints that Phoebe and Melody could have a romance—Phoebe, at least, is obviously romantically attracted to Melody—but the movie doesn’t go there, probably because Phoebe is only 15 years old. Phoebe’s sexuality could be addressed if this character continues in the “Ghostbusters” franchise as an adult.

Meanwhile, original Ghostbusters member Ray Stantz (played by Aykroyd) now owns a store called Ray’s Occult Books. On the side, Ray hosts a YouTube show produced by Podcast. One day, a man named Nadeem Razmaadi (played by Kumail Nanjiani) comes into to store to sell some family artifacts that used to be owned by his recently deceased grandmother. One of these artifacts is a dark gold brass orb, about the size of a grapefruit or bocce ball.

The movie has a long-winded way of revealing the obvious: The orb has trapped an evil demon named Garraka, which has the power to freeze things and people. Garraka wants to raise an army of the undead, according to librarian Hubert Wartzki (played by Patton Oswalt, in a quick cameo), who works at the New York City Library’s main branch. The branch’s famous lion statues Patience and Fortitude come to life n an action sequence that’s already revealed in the movie’s trailers. The way that Garraka looks is also revealed in the move’s trailers.

Winston Zeddemore (played by Ernie Hudson) is now a philanthropist who has opened the Paranormal Research Center. A somewhat snooty British parabiologist named Lars Pinfield (played by James Acaster) works for the Paranormal Research Center and is a completely useless and annyoing character. Original “Ghostbusters” character Janine Melnitz (played by Annie Potts) gets to wear a Ghostbusters team outfit but she isn’t gven much to do in her unnecessary cameo.

Grace and Nanjiani (who has talent to give charisma to even the most moronic lines of dialogue) give the best performances in this muddled movie. As for Murray, his Howard character is reduced to testing Nadeem to see if Nadeem is really human when Nadeem is suspected of possibly being a demon. He asks Nadeem a series of stupid questions, such as if he likes puppies or not. The movie makes half-hearted attempts at family sentimentality in showing how never-married bachelor Gary adjusts to being a father figure who is technically not a stepfather because he’s not married to Callie.

The adorable and mischievous Stay Puft marshmallows are barely in the in the movie. A mid-credits scene with the marshmallows is meant to be comedic but is very bland. The vibrant enthusiasm and engaging dialogue of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” are missing in “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” with many of the cast members giving “going through the motions” performances. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” (which has mediocre visual effects) is a jumble of not-very-funny scenes that reach a very formulaic conclusion that you don’t need to be a ghostbusting psychic to easily predict.

Columbia Pictures will release “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” in U.S. cinemas on March 22, 2024.

Review: ‘PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,’ starring the voices of Finn-Lee Epp, Mckenna Grace, Christian Convery, Taraji P. Henson, Ron Pardo, Marsai Martin and Lil Rel Howery

September 27, 2023

by Carla Hay

Rocky (voiced by Callum Shoniker), Marshall (voiced by Christian Corrao), Rubble (voiced by Luxton Handspiker), Zuma (voiced by Nylan Parthipan), Chase (voiced by Christian Convery), Skye (voiced by McKenna Grace), Liberty (voiced by Marsai Martin), Nano (voiced by Alan Kim), Ryder (voiced by Finn Lee-Epp), Mini (voiced by North West) and Tot (voiced by Brice Gonzalez) in “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” (Image courtesy of Spin Master Entertainment/Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures)

“PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie”

Directed by Cal Brunker 

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional Adventure City in North America, the animated film “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” features talking dog characters and a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Latinos and Asians) representing the middle-class and working-class.

Culture Clash: A boy and his team of rescue dogs must stop a ruthless scientist and a villainous former mayor, who plant to take over the world with meteoric crystals that give superpowers to people in possession of the crystals.

Culture Audience: “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” will appeal primarily to fans of the “Paw Patrol” TV series and people who want escapist, children’s-oriented entertainment that has a superhero plot.

Victoria Vance (voiced by Taraji P. Henson) in “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” (Image courtesy of Spin Master Entertainment/Nickelodeon Movies/Paramount Pictures)

In a world overloaded with superhero films, “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” is an adequate option for anyone who will watch entertainment geared to kids under the age of 10. Like many sequels, it tries to do more than the original, but it’s not cluttered. However, by introducing more characters and adding a new villain, some of the regular characters are sidelined in this movie. “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” is a sequel to 2021’s “PAW Patrol: The Movie.” Both films are directed by Carl Brunker and are based on Nickelodeon’s “PAW Patrol” series.

For the hero characters in “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” (which was co-written by Brunker and Bob Barlen), an almost entirely new cast of voice actors replaced the voice actors who were in “PAW Patrol: The Movie.” In “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” Ryder (voiced by Finn-Lee Epp) is a 10-year-old boy who’s in charge of a team of rescue dogs that have the voices of human kids who are around the same age and can do many things that humans can do, such as drive vehicles. Ryder and the dogs all live in Adventure City, which is somewhere in North America. Members of the PAW Patrol help the community in various ways, by acting as unofficial police officers and firefighters.

The dog who’s closest to Ryder is a male German Shepherd named Chase (voiced by Christian Convery), who has a reputation for being the bravest dog in the pack, with a keen sense of sight and smell. Chase is allergic to cats though, which is a hindrance since this movie’s villain has several cats. All of the other PAW Patrol dogs look up to Chase in some way as their “alpha dog.”

In addition to Chase, there’s Skye (voiced by Mckenna Grace), a bold 7-year-old female tan cockapoo, who has aircraft skills and a custom-made pink-and-grey helicopter. Marshall (voiced by Christian Corrao) is a goofy 6-year-old male Dalmatian with firefighter and paramedic skills and a custom fire engine truck. Rocky (voiced by Callum Shoniker) is a 6-year-old grey-and-white male Schnauzer/Scottish Terrier mixed-breed dog, who is skilled at recycling and handyman duties, and he has a green recycling truck.

Zuma (voiced by Nylan Parthipan) is a 5-year-old male brown Labrador Retriever whose specialty is water rescues. He has an orange hovercraft that can be used on water or on land. Rubble (voiced by Luxton Handspiker) is a 5-year-old male white-and-brown bulldog who is the team’s construction expert, and his custom vehicle is a yellow bulldozer. Smart and sassy Liberty (voiced by Marsai Martin) is a brown dachshund who was added as a new character in “PAW Patrol: The Movie.” All of the voice actors for these characters are different in “PAW Patrol: The Movie” and “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie,” except for the characters of Liberty and Rocky.

“PAW Patrol: The Movie” begins with J&H Scrap junkyard owner spouses Janet (played by Kristen Bell) and Hank (played by James Marsden) seeing a mysterious person stealing a crane and a 10-ton electromagnet. Janet and Hank report this theft to the police. It turns out that the thief is a ruthless scientist named Victoria Vance (voiced by Taraji P. Henson), who wants the electromagnet to attract a meteor to Adventure City.

Why this meteor? It has special crystals that can give superpowers to anyone who has these crystals. Why does she want these superpowers? To take over the world, of course. Victoria’s devious plan works, and the meteor crashes into Adventure City, but this crash destroys Pup Tower, the headquarters of the PAW Patrol.

This disaster couldn’t have come at a worse time for the PAW Patrol. The team has added three new members as Junior Patrollers, who are Pomeranian puppies named Mini (voiced by North West), Nano (voiced by Alan Kim) and Tot (voiced by Brice Gonzalez), who are all eager to become full-fledged members of the PAW Patrol. North West and her brother Saint West (who voices the Meteor Man character in the movie) are the children of Kim Kardashian, who has small role in the movie as a pampered poodle named Delores.

Victoria is a knowledgeable scientist, but she makes the stupid mistake of going online to brag that she caused the meteor crash. She’s quickly arrested and put in jail, where her cell mates are the disgraced Mayor Humdinger (voiced by Ron Pardo) and his six companion cats. Victoria tells Mayor Humdinger (who was the chief villain in “PAW Patrol: The Movie”) about the crystals. He convinces her to form an alliance and make a deal with him: If he can break them both out of jail, she will give him one of the crystals. Humdinger still has his buffoonish arrogance and deceptive ways.

Through a series of circumstances, the PAW Patrol find the crystals, which become attachments to their dog tags. While wearing these crystals, the dogs develop superpowers based on their strongest characteristics, except for Liberty, who is dismayed that she did not receive any superpowers from wearing a crystal. Liberty is also annoyed that she’s been tasked with looking after Mini, Nano and Tot while her team mates on the PAW Patrol take off to battle the villains. Babysitting the Junior Patrollers is not what Liberty had in mind when she joined the PAW Patrol.

“PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” borrows a lot from the story in Marvel Studios’ “Avengers: Infinity War,” because much of the movie is about a villain wanting to get a collection of precious stones, in order to rule the world. The voice cast members in “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” get the job done well enough, but Skye and Liberty are the only two PAW Patrol members who have significant storylines and screen time in “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie.” Liberty is uncomfortable about not having found her own superpower, while Skye is insecure about her past as the runt of her litter.

Victoria and Mayor Humdinger are frequently amusing to watch, but the story really only needed one chief villain, not two. As a dastardly duo, the chemistry between Victoria and Humdinger is hit and miss. Parts of “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” get jumbled when the movie tries to cram in distractions that serve no purpose except to increase the length of the film. The plot is easy to follow though, even if there’s nothing particularly innovative about it.

“PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” has some voice cameos that only seem to be in the movie so the filmmakers could say that they got some famous people to be voice actors in the film. Serena Williams makes a cameo (that’s about 10 seconds long), as the voice of a yoga instructor named Yoga Yvette. Chris Rock utters a few lines as one of Mayor Humdinger’s cats in a similarly “blink and you’ll miss it” cameo. Lil Rel Howery, who is the voice of TV reporter Sam Stringer, has one of the longer cameos, since his dialogue is about five minutes in the film.

“PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” looks exactly like what it is: A feature-length, bigger-budget version of a TV episode of “PAW Patrol.” Do not expect a masterpiece in animation, but don’t expect the fiilm to be low-quality either. “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” seems happy to occupy a space that is somewhere in the middle and made for people who just want to see a lightweight and enjoyable animated film.

Paramount Pictures will release “PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie” in U.S. cinemas on September 29, 2023.

Review: ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife,’ starring Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim and Celeste O’Connor

October 9, 2021

by Carla Hay

Celeste O’Connor, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim and McKenna Grace in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” (Photo by Kimberley French/Columbia Pictures)

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife”

Directed by Jason Reitman

Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city of Summerville, Oklahoma, and briefly in Chicago and New York City, the comedic horror film “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans, Asians and Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: The daughter and grandchildren of the late Dr. Egon Spengler (an original Ghostbuster) move to the isolated home in Summerville that they inherited from him, and they immediately have supernatural encounters with deadly entitities. 

Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of “Ghostbusters” fans, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” will appeal primarily to fans of people who like well-paced adventurous films that combine horror with comedy that’s suitable for most children over the age of 6.

Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” (Photo by Kimberley French/Columbia Pictures)

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is a “Ghostbusters” fan’s dream come true. The movie delivers almost everything that diehard fans of the franchise might want to see in a sequel. It also respects all the things that fans loved about the original “Ghostbusters” movie while introducing an exciting new storyline and appealing new characters. It’s the type of movie that is sure to win over legions of new fans to the franchise, which experienced some controversy and mixed-to-negative reviews from fans for the divisive, female-starring 2016 “Ghosbusters” reboot that was directed and co-written by Paul Feig.

Ivan Reitman, who directed 1984’s “Ghostbusters” and 1989’s “Ghostbusters II,” has been a producer of all “Ghostbusters” movies so far. For “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” he handed over the directorial duties to his son Jason Reitman, who co-wrote the “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” screenplay with Gil Kenan, a filmmaker who’s a self-professed “Ghostbusters” superfan. The result is what happens when you put true fans in charge of making a sequel to a beloved classic about ghost hunters who call themselves Ghostbusters: You give the fans what they really want. And that’s probably why “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” had its first public screening at the 2021 edition of New York Comic Con at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City. After a “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” discussion panel that featured Jason Reitman, Ivan Reitman, Kenan and members of the movie’s cast, people who were in attendance got a surprise treat when the entire film was shown after the panel ended.

In “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” the daughter and two grandchildren of Dr. Egon Spengler (an original Ghostbuster) are at the center of the story when they find themselves involved in the same work that Egon did as a Ghostbuster in New York City. Egon was portrayed by Harold Ramis (who died of autoimmune inflammatory vasculitis in 2014, at the age of 69), whose presence is definitely felt in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” Ramis was also a co-writer on the 1984 “Ghostbusters” and “Ghostbusters II.” When watching “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” fans will notice all the homages paid to these first two “Ghostbusters” movies.

Egon’s divorced daughter Callie (played by Carrie Coon), who was estranged from Egon for most of her life due to his workaholic ways, is having financial problems. It’s reached a point where Callie and her two kids, who all live in a Chicago apartment, have gotten an eviction notice from their landlord. Callie’s ex-husband, who is not seen in the movie, is not involved in raising the children. Later in the movie, Callie describes her ex-husband as a “dirtbag,” in order to leave no doubt that she doesn’t want him in her life anymore.

Instead of waiting to be evicted, Callie decides to take herself and her two kids—brainy 12-year-old Phoebe (played by Mckenna Grace) and socially awkward 15-year-old Trevor (played by Finn Wolfhard)—to the fictional small town of Summerville, Oklahoma, where Egon lived as a recluse until he died about a week before this story takes place. Even though Callie had not seen or spoken to her father in years, she inherited his run-down home. She decides to go there in person with her kids to see what to make of the place and to try to escape from her financial woes.

Egon’s home is a cluttered and dirty farmhouse located in an isolated area filled with corn fields and tall grass. Trevor quips when he looks at the dumpy condition of the house: “This is so much worse than I thought it would be.” Callie tells her children that they only plan to stay for a week while she gets some of Egon’s estate affairs in order. But there would be no “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” movie if that turned out to be true.

Before Callie, Phoebe and Trevor even arrived in Summerville, the movie shows that strange and spirits and creatures were inhabiting the area. And these sinister beings don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. There’s also an abandoned mine that was owned by the Shemdor Mining Company that plays a large role in explaining the mystery behind this story.

The mine used to be a big source of the town’s economy, but the mine was shut down years ago by the U.S. Air Force, because miners began leaping to their death in the mine shafts. Why did the U.S. Air Force get involved? It’s all explained in the movie, but viewers can figure it out as soon they hear that the U.S. Air Force and other military and federal law enforcement have had an interest in Summerville.

After Callie, Trevor and Phoebe arrive in Summerville, they find out that Egon wasn’t very well-liked by the locals, who gave him the unflattering nickname Dirt Farmer. Egon kept mostly to himself, and when he did interact with people, he was often gruff or aloof. Trevor and Phoebe never knew their grandfather Egon, but Phoebe seems more fascinated by Egon than Trevor is. During the course of the movie, viewers will see that Phoebe also inherited a lot of Egon’s analytical and personality traits. While Phoebe is very scientific-minded, Trevor is the more artistic sibling, because he is interested in filmmaking.

Callie already knows that Egon’s house is worthless. But to her dismay, she finds out that her estranged father left behind a lot of debts that she’s now responsible for paying, since she is his only heir. She tries to hide these problems from the children, but they are intuitive and are smart enough to figure out that things aren’t going so well for their family and they will be in Summerville for a while, since they have nowhere else to live rent-free.

Summerville is a quaint small town that has some characteristics of a bygone era. For example, Summerville has a drive-in diner called Spinners Roller Hop that has roller-skating servers. One of these servers is a teenager named Lucky (played by Celeste O’Connor), who immediately catches Trevor’s eye when he and his family eat at the diner one day. It’s attraction at first sight for Trevor.

Trevor is so infatuated with Lucky that he gets a job as a dishwasher at Spinners Roller Hop, in order to get to know her better. Trevor lies about his age (he says he’s 17) so that he can get the job. Callie takes a while to warm up to Trevor, and their possible romance is hinted at and teased throughout the movie. Later in the movie, Trevor does a lot of driving of a certain vehicle that “Ghostbusters” fans know and love, even though he’s not old enough to have a driver’s license.

Trevor and Callie also meet a precocious kid who’s about 12 or 13 years old. He calls himself Podcast (played by Logan Kim), because he has his own podcast where he likes to think of himself as an investigative journalist and historian for Summerville. Podcast is naturally inquisitive, and he quickly befriends Trevor and Callie. Podcast constantly carries around audio equipment with him, so he can be ready to record anything newsworthy. He’s also an aspiring paranormal investigator. How convenient.

Summerville is the type of town that doesn’t have many cops, but there are enough police officers who eventually notice some of the shenanigans that Trevor, Phoebe and Podcast get up to around town. Summerville’s Sheriff Domingo (played by Bokeem Woodbine) just happens to be Lucky’s father. Lucky ends up joining Trevor, Phoebe and Podcast in their ghostbusting activities when things get really dangerous.

Trevor isn’t the only family member to meet a potential love interest in Summerville. Carrie begins dating a seismologist named Gary Grooberson (played by Paul Rudd), who teaches at the local high school. Gary, who is a middle-aged bachelor with no children, is a little bit of a goofball nerd who would rather be a full-time scientist than be a teacher to help pay his bills. He’s so bored with teaching that one of the movie’s first scenes of Gary has him using a VCR and TV monitor in his classroom, to show old horror movies such as “Cujo (on VHS tape) to his students, as a way of babysitting them while he does other things that interest him.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is a feast of references to the first “Ghostbusters” without copying any previous “Ghostbusters” plot. Is there anyone from the previous “Ghostbusters” movies who is in “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”? That information won’t be revealed in this review, although that information has already been leaked on the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and other places where people can find out the details if they really want to know. Any “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” cameos from original “Ghostbusters” cast members also have updates on what their “Ghostbusters” characters have been up to since the 1990s.

It’s not just people from the first “Ghostbusters” movie that might or might not make a re-appearance. Don’t be surprised to see any ghosts, demons and monsters that look familiar. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” also has done something hilarious and clever with the Stay Puft marshmallow presence in the movie. The visual effects for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” are well-done and bring chills and laughs in all the right ways.

The filmmakers of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” understand that all the visual effects and scary creatures in the world wouldn’t make this movie succeed. People have to root for the main characters. And the movie delivers on featuring characters that are relatable yet find themselves in extraordinary situations. It’s a well-cast movie where all of these talented actors inhabit their character roles with a great deal of believability, even when extraordinary things are happening to their characters on screen.

In “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” Phoebe is portrayed as the smartest and most fearless hero of the movie, which is undoubtedly a star-making turn for Grace. Phoebe is serious about science, but she also likes to tell jokes that she knows are corny. For example, one of the jokes is: “What do a cigarette and a hamster have in common? They’re both completely harmless until you stick one in your mouth and light it on fire.”

Wolfhard also does a very credible job as Trevor, who can be adventurous or nervous, depending on the situation. Kim’s portrayal of Podcast is of someone who is endlessly curious, but he’s not a brat, which is what this character could have been but thankfully is not. Coon’s portrayal of Callie is of a concerned mother who’s trying to hold her family life together, even when things are starting to fall apart. Gary is smitten with Callie, so this infatuation is used for some lighthearted jokes in the movie.

Because “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” focuses most of the story on the adolescent characters, some people might say that the movie is trying to be like the Netflix series “Stranger Things,” which also co-stars Wolfhard. But make no mistake: This is a “Ghostbusters” movie in every way. It has comedy, scary thrills and plenty of adventure and mystery that all harken back to the original “Ghostbusters,” but told from young people’s perspectives. That doesn’t mean the adult characters are sidelined in the movie, but they really are supporting characters who don’t get involved in the action until it’s absolutely necessary.

“Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is escapist entertainment, but the movie also has some tearjerking, poignant moments, especially in the final scenes. Stick around for the mid-credits and end-credits scenes too, which will further delight fans of the original “Ghostbusters” movie. Even if people don’t see these credits scenes, it should come as no surprise that “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” already telegraphs that this film is not the end of the “Ghostbusters” movie series.

Columbia Pictures will release “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” in U.S. cinemas on November 19, 2021.

Review: ‘Spirit Untamed,’ starring the voices of Isabela Merced, Marsai Martin, Mckenna Grace, Walton Goggins, Julianne Moore and Jake Gyllenhaal

June 4, 2021

by Carla Hay

Abigail Stone (voiced by Mckenna Grace), Lucky Prescott (voiced by Isabela Merced) and Pru Granger (voiced by Marsai Martin) in “Spirit Untamed” (Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation)

“Spirit Untamed”

Directed by Elaine Bogan; Co-directed by Ennio Torresan

Culture Representation: Taking place sometime in the early 1800s or mid-1800s in an unnamed Southwestern part of the United States, the animated film “Spirit Untamed” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing frontier people living in the Wild West.

Culture Clash: A 12-year-old girl defies her father’s orders to ride a horse, and she teams up with two other girls to fight bandits who have stolen a team of horses led by an intelligent mustang stallion named Spirit.

Culture Audience: “Spirit Untamed” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the Netflix animated series “Spirit Riding Free,” on which this movie is based, but many viewers might be unimpressed with the bland storyline, unremarkable animation and an origin story that isn’t very original.

Lucky Prescott (voiced by Isabela Merced), Aunt Cora (voiced by Julianne Moore) and Jim Prescott (voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal) in “Spirit Untamed” (Image courtesy of DreamWorks Animation)

In this lukewarm origin story for Netflix’s “Spirit Riding Free” animated series, the animated feature film “Spirit Untamed” does a watered-down and unimaginative Disney Princess version of “Spirit Riding Free.” All of the elements of a Disney Princess story are there: The 12-year-old female protoganist has an absentee or dead mother. She has “daddy issues” with a father or father figure who’s usually overprotective. And she fights gender biases that expect girls to not be as adventurous as boys.

However, “Spirit Untamed” is not a Disney film. It’s from DreamWorks Animation, which has been trying for years to play catch-up to Disney’s dominance of the animated movie business. Unfortunately, “Spirit Untamed” is not an example of a highly creative or visually stunning animated film. It’s so mediocre and formulaic that it doesn’t even look like a movie that needs to be seen in a movie theater.

And it’s disappointing that the movie isn’t better, because “Spirit Untamed” is a rare animated film released in cinemas that has a female-majority team of directors, writers and producers. The movie is the feature-film debut of Elaine Boga, who has previously directed episodes of DreamWorks Animation series such as “3Below: Tales of Arcadia,” “Trollhunters: Arcadia,” “Dragons: Race to the Edge” and “DreamWorks Dragons.” Ennio Torresan co-directed “Spirit Untamed,” which was written by Kristin Hahn, Katherine Nolfi and Aury Wallington.

When a TV series has a feature-film spinoff that’s released in cinemas, it should deliver a story that’s epic, so that people will feel like the story was worth seeing on a theater big screen. “Spirit Untamed” just looks like a story from some leftover script ideas that didn’t make it into the show’s pilot episode, but with different (bigger-named) actors voicing the main characters in the movie. Just because the movie had a bigger budget and more famous actors than the TV series doesn’t mean that the quality is any better than the TV series.

“Spirit Riding Free” is based on the 2002 DreamWorks Animation Film “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” which hardly has anything in common with the TV series and “Spirit Untamed,” except for the mustang stallion character Spirit, an intelligent horse that refuses to be tamed and held captive. “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron” is told from the horse’s point of view (with Matt Damon providing the narration as the voice of Spirit) and it’s a very male-centric movie.

In “Spirit Riding Free,” the main protaganist is 12-year-old Fortuna Esperanza Navarro Prescott, nicknamed Lucky. She’s a slightly rebellious, very adventuresome girl who has moved from a big city to a small frontier town called Miradero in an unnamed part of the Southwestern United States. The story is set in the early 1800s or mid-1800s, and where Lucky is living is considered a Wild West territory that has not yet been become an official state in the United States.

In the TV series, Lucky (who is an only child) lives with her widowed father Jim Prescott Jr. and her aunt Cora Prescott. She befriends a mustang stallion named Spirit, who heads a team of other wild horses. In the first episode of “Spirit Riding Free,” Lucky rescued Spirit from a group of horse wranglers. The “Spirit Untamed” movie is essentially the same story, except there’s more background information about how the death of Lucky’s mother has affected the family.

“Spirit Untamed” also has the same sidekicks for Lucky: two girls who are about the same age as she is: Prudence “Pru” Granger and Abigail Stone. Pru has a horse named Chica Linda, while Abigail has a horse named Boomerang. Spirit doesn’t want to be owned by anyone, but Lucky is one of the few people who can ride Spirit without Spirit trying to knock them to the ground. In “Spirit Riding Free,” Lucky goes to school. In “Spirit Untamed,” the closest reference to school is near the beginning, when a homeschooled Lucky is still living in the city and she’s reluctant to do homework that was assigned to her by her math tutor.

Viewers will have to suspend disbelief or get used to how this “Spirit” world isn’t historically authentic in many ways. The “Spirit” world is supposed to be set in the early 1800s or mid-1800s, before cars and electricity existed, but many of the characters in the movie dress, talk and use a few things to make it look like this story takes place in the 20th century. For example, in “Spirit Untamed,” Abigail blows and pops some bubble gum, which wasn’t invented until 1928.

The movie’s characters (especially the women and girls) also wear their hair and clothes that look more like they’re in a TV ad for Levi’s jeans, not living in an era before electricity was invented. Yes, many people watching this movie will be children who are too young to know better. But a lot of viewers will be people who are old enough to know that these characters are too modern for the 1800s. And these observant viewers won’t like how this movie was made as if the filmmakers think that people are too stupid to notice.

The historical inaccuracy in “Spirit Untamed” is the least of this movie’s problems. Because “Spirit Untamed” is just a longer retread of the first episode of “Spirit Riding Free,” it comes across as quite lazy that the screenwriters couldn’t come up with a more original story for this movie. “Spirit Untamed” opens with the death of Lucky’s mother Milagro Navarro (voiced by Eiza González), who died when she was thrown off of the horse that she was riding in a rodeo. Lucky’s father Jim Prescott Jr. (voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal) witnessed this death, which happened when Lucky was a baby.

Jim was apparently so grief-stricken that he didn’t think he could raise Lucky as a single father. And so, Lucky (voiced by Isabela Merced) was raised in the city by Jim’s sister Cora (voiced by Julianne Moore), while Jim stayed in Miradero. It’s shown near the beginning of the movie that Jim’s father James Prescott Sr. (voiced by Joe Hart) is running for governor. The Prescotts seem to be a well-to-do family because they can afford a private tutor for Lucky.

However, Jim and his father are no longer on speaking terms because James Prescott Sr. is not impressed with what he thinks is Jim’s lack of amibition and small-town life. And it’s implied, but not really said out loud, that Jim lost respect from his father because Jim handed off the responsbility of raising Lucky to Cora. And there are hints that the death of Lucky’s mother hasn’t been discussed enough in the family, so the emotional wounds still cut deep.

These are family issues that could be too heavy for an animated film that’s made for children as a large part of the movie’s target audience, but these issues could have been explored better in “Spirit Untamed.” It can be done: Pixar Animation Studios (owned by Disney) has built its brand on making animated films about heavy life issues while still being entertaining to people of all ages. Instead, “Spirit Untamed” just glosses over these issues in a shallow way.

Lucky is shown sulking on a window ledge because she wants to go to a party that her grandfather is having for his political campaign. However, Cora explains that Lucky is not allowed to go to the party because Lucky has to study and work on her math lessons. There’s a squirrel named Tom that Lucky has befriended. And somehow, this squirrel ends up at the party, lands on James Prescott Sr.’s face, and a newspaper photographer caught the amusing spectacle on camera. (This party is never shown in the movie.)

A photo of the squirrel on James Prescott Sr.’s face ends up on the front page of the newspaper. And apparently, he was so humiliated and angry about this squirrel, that he blamed Lucky and sent her away to visit his estranged son Jim (Lucky’s father) in Miradero for a few months. It’s a clumsy way to explain why Lucky and Cora have to go to Miradero, but there it is in this movie.

While riding by train to Miradero, Lucky looks outside a window and sees Spirit for the first time, when he’s running with his team of horses in a nearby field. She’s immediately drawn to this horse and can’t take her eyes off of him. The horse makes eye contact with her, so even if viewers know nothing about the “Spirit” franchise before seeing this movie, it’s obvious that Spirit and Lucky will end up becoming friends.

At one point in the journey, Lucky is at the back of the train and leaning over a rail to get a better view of the scenery. She almost falls over, but she’s caught in time by a rough-looking man named Hendricks (voiced by Walton Goggins), who is traveling with four other men on the train. (Hendricks’ unnamed companions are voiced by Jerry Clarke, Gino Montesinos, Lew Temple and Gary Anthony Williams.) Cora and Lucky thank Hendricks for preventing Lucky from having a dangerous fall. Hendricks seems polite, but it’s soon clear that he’s going to be the story’s chief villain.

Shortly after arriving in Miradero, where people immediately tell Lucky how much she looks like her mother, Lucky has an awkward reunion with her father Jim, who lives in a cluttered house that looks like it hasn’t been cleaned in a while. Jim doesn’t endear himself to Lucky right away when he sheepishly admits that he forgot the date that Lucky and Cora were arriving, so he wasn’t fully prepared when they showed up at his door.

Most of the house is a jumbled mess, but Jim has thoughtfully redecorated a bedroom where Lucky will be staying. It’s the only neat and clean room in the house, but Jim has gone overboard in decorating the room with strawberry art. The wallpaper even has strawberries on it. He explains to Lucky that she used to love strawberries as a baby, so that’s why the room has a strawberry theme.

Lucky doesn’t think the room suits her taste, but there’s nothing she can do about it. And besides, the plan is that she and Cora will only be visiting for a few months. Behind her bedroom, Lucky finds a secret room with mementos and other personal items that belonged to her late mother Milagro. It’s here that Lucky discovers how much her mother was a well-regarded rodeo horseback rider.

Meanwhile, because of the way that Milagro died, Jim is strict in forbidding Lucky to ride any horses. And, of course, everyone watching this movie knows she’s going to break that rule. Cora takes Lucky to a rodeo, where she meets Pru (voiced by Marsai Martin), who’s a skilled horseback rider. Pru’s father Al Granger (voiced by Andre Braugher) is there too.

Later, Lucky meets a hyper kid, who’s about 7 or 8 years old, named Snips Stone (voiced by Lucian Perez). And it’s because of Snips that Lucky meets his older sister Abigail Stone (voiced by McKenna Grace). Abigail thinks that Snips is a brat, so there are a few bizarre and unnecessary scenes where Abigail has him tied up, because she doesn’t want him pestering her.

The capitivity abuse of Snips is supposed to be funny, but it comes across as cruel. Imagine the outrage if a boy had his sister tied up or hanging by ropes, even in an animated film. Snips and Abigail’s parents are never seen in “Spirit Untamed.” It’s another glaring omission from the film that doesn’t explain why Abigail and Snips don’t seem to have any adult supervision.

Abigail is actually more annoying than Snips in this movie. She brings a banjo with her and starts singing at inopportune moments. Abigail, who also tends to talk too much, has it stuck in her head that she, Pru and Lucky should be in a band. Lucky and even Jim have a few moments where they break out into song too. The movie’s original songs—including “Better With You” (peformed by Merced) and “Fearless” (performed by Merced and González)—are mediocre and forgettable.

Pru has the same deadpan sarcasm that’s in the “Spirit Riding Free” TV series. Lucky and Pru are smarter than Abigail, while Lucky is the biggest risk-taker, the most persistent and the most optimistic of the three friends. Just like in the TV series, Pru, Abigail and Lucky see that the first letters of their first names can be spelled as PAL. And they have friendship bracelets with the world PAL engraved on it.

Hendricks and his gang of horse wranglers are in Miradero because they’ve been hired to break/train some wild horses that were found by Pru’s father Al. Spirit is one of these wild horses, and that’s how Lucky sees Spirit and his team again and gets to know the horses better. Every time Lucky sees Spirit, she can’t resist letting him loose from the ropes that bind him to the corral.

Al is married to Pru’s mother, but Pru’s mother is never seen in “Spirit Untamed.” In fact, Cora is the only “mother figure” or adult female character with a significant speaking role in this movie. The lack of adult female characters with major roles in this story somewhat undermines the feminist intentions of the movie, which basically makes Lucky, Pru and Abigail look like the adolescent Wild West version of Charlie’s Angels when they decide to chase down the bad guys.

That’s because Hendricks and his cronies are really there to steal Spirit and the rest of the wild horses, so that these thieves can auction off the horses into a life of captivity and strenuous labor. And it’s up to Lucky, Pru and Abigail to save these horses. Spirit manages to escape, so Pru rides him on this mission to hunt down the thieves. Everything that follows is entirely predictable, with nothing that hasn’t been seen already in a “Spirit Riding Free” episode.

There are the seemingly impossible horse leaps from one cliff to the next. There are moments when it looks like the villains are winning because they outnumber the heroes. There are the scenes where horses get lassoed and try to break away and seem to be in pain. We all know how this movie is going to end anyway, so there’s no suspense, but the filmmakers should have at least come up with better obstacles for the heroes than the same old scenarios.

All of the voice actors do serviceable jobs in the roles, but no one is going to win any animation awards for “Spirit Untamed.” Toward the end, the movie gets a bit too slapstick for its own good. It’s as if the filmmakers didn’t know if the movie should be more of an action drama or more of an action comedy.

Coming from a major animation studio like DreamWorks, “Spirit Untamed” should’ve had outstanding visuals, but the movie looks incredibly generic. The screenplay should have offered more suspense and a less superficial look at the Prescott family dynamics to give more emotional depth to Lucky’s backstory. Now that Lucky’s origin story has been established in a feature film, if there’s another “Spirit” movie based on the “Spirit Riding Free” series, let’s hope that the end results look like money well-spent instead of a cheap knockoff of better-quality animated films.

DreamWorks Animation released “Spirit Untamed” in U.S. cinemas on June 4, 2021.

Review: ‘Troop Zero,’ starring Viola Davis, Mckenna Grace, Jim Gaffigan, Mike Epps and Allison Janney

January 17, 2020

by Carla Hay

Troop Zero
Allison Janney and Viola Davis in “Troop Zero” (Photo by Curtis Bonds Baker)

“Troop Zero”

Directed by Bert & Bertie

Culture Representation: Taking place in 1977, the family-friendly comedy “Troop Zero” has predominantly white American characters (with some representation of African Americans and Latinos) from the middle and lower classes of a rural, conservative community in the U.S. state of Georgia.

Culture Clash: The movie’s plot revolves around a talent competition for middle-school Birdie Scouts, with one rival troop comprised of “popular girls” and another rival troop comprised of “social outcasts.”

Culture Audience: “Troop Zero” will appeal primarily to people who like adorable, slightly kooky comedies about student angst and self-identity.

Mckenna Grace in “Troop Zero” (Photo by Curtis Bonds Baker)

In a comedy film, a cranky adult reluctantly takes on a group of pre-teen misfits to coach them in a high-stakes competition where the team will be ridiculed underdogs. Is it 1977’s “The Bad News Bears” or 1992’s “The Mighty Ducks”? No, in this case, it’s 2020’s “Troop Zero,” a decidedly different take on a familiar plot outline.

“Troop Zero,” which is set in 1977 rural Georgia, is certainly a throwback to those films from a bygone era when smartphones and social media didn’t dominate kids’ lives. The main differences between most films of this kind and “Troop Zero” is that for “Troop Zero,” the story is told from the perspective of a girl; the adult leader of the misfit group is a woman; and the movie was written and directed by women.

Directed by female duo Bert & Bertie and written by Oscar-nominated “Beasts of the Southern Wild” co-writer Lucy Alibar, “Troop Zero” has a cute and quirky charm that comes primarily from Christmas Flint (played by Mckenna Grace), an adolescent girl who’s obsessed with outer space and who’s still grieving over the death of her mother from the previous year. The opening scene of the movie shows Christmas trying to contact outer-space aliens with flashlight signals.

Christmas lives with her father, Ramsey Flint (played by Jim Gaffigan), a defense attorney who’s constantly having financial problems because he has many clients who can’t or won’t pay him, and he has a hard time saying no to people he thinks need his help. Ramsey’s assistant/office manager is Miss Raylene (played by Viola Davis), who’s the closest to a maternal figure that Christmas has in her life, even if Miss Raylene says she doesn’t particularly like being around children. “Little girls give me the creeps,” Miss Raylene says in one scene. “You can’t him them no more. They changed the laws.”

Ramsey’s best friend Dwayne (played by Mike Epps) is a fellow Vietnam War veteran who’s suffering from PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Back in 1977, there wasn’t a name for PTSD, so they usually called it being “shell-shocked.” Dwayne is the love interest of Miss Raylene, who’s had her heart broken in her past. She reveals the details in the movie, and it explains why she has such a hard exterior.

Viewers see early on in the film that Christmas is an outcast at her school not only because a lot of students think she’s weird, but also because her father’s financially precarious situation has branded the Flints as “poor trash” by the snobs in the community. Her best friend is Joseph (played by Charlie Shotwell), an androgynous, flamboyant child who might be gay, but the movie hints that Joseph is either gender-fluid or non-binary, because various characters in the movie keep saying that they don’t know if Joseph is a boy or a girl. And since this movie takes place in 1977, there weren’t specific terms for people who might not have a cisgender identity.

Some of the social rejection that Christmas experiences stings her a little bit, but she’s mostly content to do her own thing and hang out with Joseph. She’s not really concerned about being well-liked and joining groups until she finds out that there’s a national talent competition for Birdie Scouts where the winning scout troop will get to have their voices recorded on NASA’s Golden Record, thereby becoming part of space history.

With no way of being accepted by the established Birdie Scout troops in the area, Christmas decides to start her own Birdie Scout troop. The style-minded Joseph (who likes to wear dresses and loves David Bowie) is immediately up for the challenge and is the first recruit to this new troop. Christmas also ends up convincing these other kids to join the troop: Ann-Claire (played by Bella Higginbotham), an eyepatch-wearing nervous and shy girl who’s devoted to Christianity; Hell-No (played by Milan Ray), the school’s loudmouth bully; and Smash (played Johanna Colón), who’s practically mute and likes to destroy things when she gets angry—a lot like the Incredible Hulk. The Birdie Scout troops have numbers for their names, so Christmas chooses “zero” as the name for her troop, since “zero” can also mean infinity.

The Birdie Scouts of the school are under the supervision of Crystal Massey (played by Allison Janney), the school principal whom the students have nicknamed Nasty Massey. She’s the type of uptight and stern principal we’ve seen many times before in movies, but Janney brings a touch of humanity to the role to convey that Principal Massey must be a pathetic and lonely person for her to take so much pleasure in making life miserable for other people. (On a side note, fans of “The Help” movie should delight in seeing “The Help” co-stars Davis and Janney reunited on screen.)

Principal Massey is already counting on her favorite Birdie Scout troop, Troop Five, to win the competition. Troop Five is the group of popular girls in the school—the types who are cheerleaders, “A”-grade students, and from the communities’ socially prominent families. (The Troop Five members are also stuck-up mean girls.) But to Principal Massey’s horror, Troop Zero qualifies to become a real troop to enter the competition, as long as Troop Zero gets an adult leader. Miss Raylene completely resists the idea at first, but she eventually gives in to Christmas’ relentless pleas for Miss Raylene to become Troop Zero’s adult leader.

Another big challenge that Troop Zero faces is to raise enough money for the competition’s entry fees. They do so by selling cookies from door to door and by offering pop-up beauty salon services to local women. (Joseph is thrilled to be the troop’s best hair stylist.) One of the baking sessions ends up in a predictable food fight when members of Troop Five crash the session.

The hairstyles and clothes aren’t the only indications that this movie takes place in the 1970s. In one scene in the movie, as one of the required Birdie Scout challenges, Miss Raylene leaves the members of Troop Zero alone to camp out overnight in the woods. That’s not the kind of thing that adults could get away with nowadays. (We have to assume that the parents thought that the kids would be safe with Miss Raylene, but she ends up ditching the children to fend for themselves.)

Her reason for the abandonment is to build character and courage for the troop. It’s the kind of scene that’s cringeworthy to watch for anyone who would never do that to defenseless kids, but since this movie is supposed to be a comedy, you can almost hear the filmmakers make this excuse: “Hey, it was the ’70s!”

Speaking of the ’70s, there’s something very old-school about this kind of film with the basic plot about student angst and “misfits versus the popular ones,” but “Troop Zero” has a modern sensibility by including child characters who wouldn’t be in movies that were made back in the 1970s. (Joseph is a perfect example.)

The precocious and determined Christmas is also ahead of her time, since she has no hesitation about her goals to join NASA and go into outer space. It’s a dream that people around her discourage her from having, because the naysayers tell her that being an astronaut is a “man’s job.” And what happens during Troop Zero’s talent routine during the competition is something that wouldn’t have been in a children’s movie that was made back in the 1970s.

“Troop Zero,” which had its world premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, is not just a movie that will appeal to girls or women. It has a message of self-acceptance and how to overcome obstacles that can resonate with a wide variety of people, if you don’t mind sitting through the retro vibe and familiarity of it all.

Amazon Prime Video premiered “Troop Zero” on January 17, 2020.

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