Culture Representation: Taking place in New York City and briefly in Florida, the comedy/drama film “Eleanor the Great” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: A sassy Jewish widow befriends a young journalism student, who wants to do a story about the widow being a Holocaust survivor, but the widow has a big, scandalous secret.
Culture Audience: “Eleanor the Great” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, director Scarlett Johansson, and comedy/dramas about senior citizens and how people cope with grief.
Chiwetel Ejiofor in “Eleanor the Great” (Photo by Anne Joyce/Sony Pictures Classics)
“Eleanor the Great” has talented performances and a well-intentioned story about coping with grief. However, this comedy/drama is problematic for how it tries to make dishonesty and rudeness from an old person look cute. The elderly age of the movie’s title character is used as an excuse for too many repulsive things that wouldn’t be excused as easily if a younger person did those things.
Directed by Scarlett Johansson and written by Tory Kamen, “Eleanor the Great” is Johansson’s feature-film directorial debut. Johansson, who is best known as an actress, does not appear in the movie but is one of the film’s producers. “Eleanor the Great” had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival and its North American premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. The movie takes place mostly in New York City (where “Eleanor the Great” was filmed on location) and briefly in Florida.
“Eleanor the Great” begins by showing best friends Eleanor Morgenstein (played by June Squibb) and Bessie Stern (played by Rita Zohar), who are both widows, waking up in separate beds in the same room in the apartment that they share in somewhere in Florida. Eleanor says, “Bessie, we overslept. You look tired.” Eleanor says it in a way that doesn’t express concern but has a condescending attitude. Bessie replies, “Thanks.”
This scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie: Eleanor makes unflattering comments or outright insults to people, and they just allow her to do it because she’s Eleanor. In the movie, Eleanor being “sassy” is supposed to be amusing. Eleanor, who is 94 years old, usually acts like she’s smarter than almost everyone who interacts with her, just because she’s lived to this advanced age. In real life, many people would think Eleanor is irritating and certainly not as adorable as the movie wants us to think she is.
Even with Eleanor’s flaws, there’s no denying that Eleanor and Bessie (who have been best friends for about 70 years) have a genuine friendship. When Bessie dies, Eleanor decides to move back to New York City, where she lived for 40 years with her husband Harry. Eleanor moves in with her divorced daughter Lisa (played by Jessica Hecht), whose son Max (played by Will Price) is a first-year university student who lives on campus. Max is friendly, but he’s barely in the movie: His screen time is less than 10 minutes.
Eleanor is kind and loving to Max, but she frequently insults Lisa, for no apparent reason. Eleanor’s insults are often delivered with a smile or “mother knows best” tone. However, Eleanor’s derogatory remarks and criticisms are still insults that she knows will hurt insecure Lisa, who has the maturity not to sink to Eleanor’s mean-spirited level. Eleanor’s snide comments about Lisa’s physical appearance are especially petty. Lisa does her best to please Eleanor, but Eleanor never seems completely appreciative and accepting of Lisa.
Viewers can only guess why Eleanor is often unkind to her only child, but it’s hinted that Eleanor is resentful that Lisa didn’t keep in touch with Eleanor as much as Eleanor would’ve liked when Eleanor lived in Florida. If Eleanor has treated Lisa this way for most of Lisa’s life, then it’s no wonder that Lisa would avoid being in regular contact with Eleanor. As it is, the movie doesn’t give enough background information about the type of mother that Eleanor was before she moved in with Lisa.
Lisa has a full-time job, but Eleanor is resentful that Lisa won’t be spending as much time with Eleanor during the day as Eleanor expected. Lisa thoughtfully signs up Eleanor to be a member of the nearest Jewish Community Center (JCC) to keep Eleanor busy and social during the day. Eleanor reluctantly attends a JCC singing class, where she thinks the featured singer (played by Beth Goodrich) is awful and isn’t afraid to say so out loud as Eleanor walks out of the class.
At the JCC, Eleanor wanders into a room where there’s a support group meeting for Holocaust survivors. Eleanor says she’s a native of Poland who escaped from Nazi persecution in the 1940s, and she moved to the United States in 1953. She tells a personal Holocaust story, which emotionally moves a visitor in the group: Nina Davis (played by Erin Kellyman), an undergraduate journalism student at New York University (NYU). Nina, who is in her sophomore year at NYU, asks Eleanor if she can interview Eleanor for an academic assignment story that Nina has decided to do about Holocaust survivors. Eleanor says no but then changes her mind.
Over time, brash Eleanor and sensitive Nina become friends who both open up to each about their grief. Nina was very close to her mother Jane, who died about six months earlier. Jane was Jewish and a successful photographer, so there are multiple scenes where Nina looks mournfully at the photos that her mother took. Nina and Eleanor do Jewish activities together, such as go to synagogue services or eat Jewish food when they go out for meals. Nina is biracial (her father is African American), but her black/African American ethnicity is sidelined and barely acknowledged in the movie.
Nina’s father Roger Davis (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), who is an anchor on local TV station Spectrum News NY1, is emotionally distant and doesn’t like to talk about Jane’s death. Nina chose to do a feature profile on Eleanor for a class assignment partly because Nina wants to do a story connected to Nina’s Jewish heritage and partly because Nina wants to impress her father in Nina’s aspirations to be a journalist. Spectrum News NY1 ends up becoming interested in Eleanor’s Holocaust story because of Nina’s NYU assignment coverage.
Eleanor spends more time with Nina than Eleanor’s biological family members. Nina is a self-proclaimed loner who says she doesn’t feel completely comfortable with many of her university peers. Unlike the stern and judgmental way that Eleanor treats Lisa, Eleanor is warm and open-minded in how she treats Nina. For example, when Nina casually mentions that she’s a lesbian, Eleanor smiles and immediately says she thinks it’s great that Nina can be herself.
Even though much of “Eleanor the Great” has scenes of Eleanor and Nina openly sharing their feelings, Eleanor has a big secret that is revealed to viewers about halfway through the movie. Even without this reveal, it’s easy to figure out that Eleanor is hiding something because of her reluctance to go on camera to tell her life story. It’s a secret that involves huge betrayals of trust.
“Eleanor the Great” (which is a solid directorial debut from Johansson) excels when it’s about the friendship that develops between Eleanor and Nina, because it shows the best side of Eleanor. Where the movie falters is in the hokey way that Eleanor’s problem is resolved. It’s just a little too contrived and needed more realism. Ultimately, “Eleanor the Great” is a feel-good movie whose quality is lowered by its cloying and unjustified schmaltziness, but Squibb carries the movie with a certain undeniable charm.
Sony Pictures Classics released “Eleanor the Great” in select U.S. cinemas on September 26, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on September 15, 2025.
David Iacono, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Scarlett Johansson, Mahershala Ali and Jonathan Bailey in “Jurassic World Rebirth” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)
Culture Representation: Taking place near South America, the sci-fi/action film “Jurassic World Rebirth” (the seventh feature film in the “Jurassic” series) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some Latin people and a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A rogue group of explorers and an unsuspecting family get trapped on an island where dinosaurs live and attack.
Culture Audience: “Jurassic World Rebirth” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the “Jurassic” movie series and the movie’s headliners, but the movie rehashes many of the same themes and storylines.
A Spinosaurus in “Jurassic World Rebirth” (Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)
“Jurassic World Rebirth” should be called “Jurassic World Rehash.” It delivers plenty of action, but it borrows heavily from the plot of “Jurassic World III,” with no real innovation or surprises regarding who lives, who dies, and what the dinosaurs do. “Jurassic World Rebirth” has a lot of awkward acting and unconvincing scenes. And the product placement in the movie is just obnoxiously ridiculous. You can immediately spot many of the product placements by how certain brands of candy, breath mints and potato chips are pushed into the forefront of a scene so that they’re impossible to ignore.
Directed by Gareth Edwards and written by David Koepp, “Jurassic World Rebirth” is the seventh feature film in the “Jurassic” movie series that began with 1993’s “Jurassic Park,” which is still the best movie in the series. “Jurassic Park” and 1997’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” were based on, respectively, Michael Crichton’s novels “Jurassic Park” (first published in 1990) and “The Lost World” (first published in 1995). The “Jurassic World” movies are sequels to the first three “Jurassic Park” movies.
“Jurassic World Rebirth” takes place in five years after the events of 2022’s “Jurassic World Dominion.” Do you have to see any of the other “Jurassic Park” movies to understand “Jurassic World Rebirth”? No, because “Jurassic World Rebirth” has an entire cast of characters who were not in the previous “Jurassic” movies and “Jurassic World Rebirth” is essentially about people trying not to be killed by dinosaurs.
According to the “Jurassic World Rebirth” production notes, here is what Earth is like in the story: “The planet’s ecology has proven largely inhospitable to dinosaurs. Those remaining exist in isolated equatorial environments with climates resembling the one in which they once thrived. The three most colossal creatures across land, sea and air within that tropical biosphere hold, in their DNA, the key to a drug that will bring miraculous life-saving benefits to humankind. And so, in ‘Rebirth,’ dinosaurs are in danger of extinction once more. The only places they continue to thrive are the tropical climes along the equator.”
“Jurassic World” begins by showing a catastrophe that happened 17 years ago on Ile Saint-Hubert, located 227 miles off the northeastern coast of South America. (“Jurassic World Rebirth” was actually filmed in the United Kingdom and in Malta.) The island had a secret research and development facility operated by InGen, the company known for cloning dinosaurs in the previous “Jurassic” movies. The movie’s opening scene shows that a worker in the facility unknowingly left a discarded candy bar wrapper on the floor.
This candy bar wrapper got stuck in an air vent and caused a giant glass-enclosed research lab to reboot the system and then explode, killing most of the people inside. The research lab housed dinosaurs that were being used for illegal experiments. After the explosion, the facility was shut down permanently, but the dinosaurs and their offspring remained on this secret island.
In the present day (2025), certain people have discovered that each of the largest types of dinosaurs left behind on Ile Saint-Hubert have genetic DNA that can cure heart disease in humans. The three types of dinosaurs are Quetzalcoatlus (avian), Mosasaurus (aquatic), and Titanosaurus (terrestrial). With this confidential knowledge, it’s only a matter of time before a greedy corporate type wants to get this dinosaur DNA and profit from it.
Martin Krebs (played by Rupert Friend) is the corrupt leader of a major American pharmaceutical company that wants to obtain this DNA, which would be illegal. Martin doesn’t care, and he’s got the wealth to buy their services of a team that will go to Ile Saint-Hubert and get the DNA. Martin wants to personally go on this mission too because he doesn’t trust anyone else to handle the DNA once it’s extracted.
Leading this extraction mission is no-nonsense Zora Bennett (played Scarlett Johansson), a longtime mercernary/special operations agent, who agrees to for this job for Martin for $10 million. Martin and Zora then convince Dr. Henry Loomis (played by Jonathan Bailey)—a museum-based paleontologist whose specialty is colossal dinosaurs—to join the this covert team.
Zora then visits a longtime friend and former colleague named Duncan Kincaid (played by Mahershala Ali), the captain of a camouflaged military patrol craft named The Essex. Duncan is very skeptical but Zora persuades Duncan to join this mission with select members of Duncan’s crew. The three members of Duncan’s crew who are part of this mission are adventurous co-pilot/deckhand Nina (played by Philippine Velge), reliable co-pilot/deckhand LeClerc (played by Bechir Sylvain) and daredevil security chief Bobby Atwater (played by Ed Skrein). All of them are enticed by the money they will be paid.
Why such a small crew for a big mission? Martin explains the less people who know about this mission, the better. The team has giant hypodermic needles to collect the samples when the needles are shot from arsenal into the dinosaurs. Once a needle filled, the needle self-ejects and triggers an attached parachute that will presumably float into hands of the person who wants the needle. This needle parachuting has some of the most ridiculous “too good to be true” moments in the movie.
Not long after The Essex sets sail for Ile Saint-Hubert, a group on a very different boat excursion will cross paths with the people on The Essex. Divorced father Reuben Delgado (played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) is contuinuing their annual tradition of taking his two daughters on a sailing trip. Teresa Delgado (played by Luna Blaise), who is 18, is going to be a first-year student at New York University and feels she has outgrown these father-daughter excursions. Isabella Delgado (played by Audrina Miranda), who is 11, very much wants to be on this trip with her family.
Someone else has joined the Delgado family for this boat trip: Teresa’s eccentric boyfriend Xavier Dobbs (played by David Iacono), who comes across as a weirdo stoner. Reuben doesn’t know what to think about Xavier, who doesn’t talk much and seems to be the opposite of intelligent and goal-oriented Teresa. But in a movie where people of different backgrounds find themselves fighting for their lives against dinosaurs, you already know that certain characters who were at first uncomfortable with each other will be forced to work together and see each other in a different way.
Terror comes quickly to the Delgado group when a Spinosaurus in the ocean attacks and capsizes the group’s boat. After a harrowing sequence (one of the better parts of an otherwise formulaic movie), the Delgado group is rescued by the people on The Essex. None of this is spoiler information because the trailers for “Jurassic World Dominion” lready show the Delgado group and The Essex group in peril together.
The Delgado group just wants to go home. However, some people from The Essex group want to continue to push forward to Ile Saint-Hubert and drop off the Delgado group to safety after the dinosaur DNA samples are obtained. After much debate, it’s decided that the Delgado group will have to wait until people in The Essex group get what they set out to get. The people in the Essex group are secretive about why they want this dinosaur DNA, but they can’t hide the fact that they’re acting suspiciously.
With the Delgado group forced to tag along on this mission, you know what that means: More people for the dinosaurs to attack. “Jurassic World Rebirth” just has a series of attack scenarious that look very familiar to the “Jurassic” movie franchise, but with different-looking dinosaurs. It should come as no surprise that the dinosaurs that were used in experiements look very different. (Can you say “mutant”?)
The personal stories of the human characters are basic, scant and unremarkable. Zora is a loner who’s still dealing with the trauma of a combat colleague dying in a car bombing. It’s also mentioned that Zora did not attend her mother’s recent funeral. Duncan, who is a divorced father of an underage son, is experiencing heartbreak because of his failed marriage.
Self-professed “dinosaur nerd” Henry doesn’t seem to have a personal life at all because he’s so consumed with his work. Martin is the movie’s obvious heartless villian, so the movie doesn’t even mention who his loved ones are. And the people in Duncan’s crew are generic characters whose fate in the movie can be easily be predicted.
And so that leaves the Delgado group to give “Jurassic World Rebirth” viewers an immediate and visible sense that they are the people with the most at stake in staying alive for their loved ones. The movie sometimes struggles between giving attention to The Essex group versus the Delgado group, who are each separated from each other at different points in the movie. In between all the dinosaur action, there’s some tedious drama about whether or not Xavier will be fully accepted by Reuben.
“Jurassic Park III” also has a plot about dinosaurs needed for research to improve human lives, with people hiring a rogue group to take them on a secret private visit to the “forbidden” island populated by dinosaurs. “Jurassic Park III” also has a family with siblings who are trapped on the island, but the siblings are brothers in “Jurassic Park III.” And just like in “Jurassic Park III,” there’s a Spinosaurus and there are Velociraptors in major attack scenes.
“Jurassic World Rebirth” does introduce new dinosaurs that weren’t in previous “Jurassic” films. Not all of them will be described here, but one is a baby Aquilops, who follows the Delgado group like a stray puppy and has a mischievous-but-cute personality. Isabella grows attached to this female Aquilops, names her Dolores, and wants to keep Dolores as a pet. It’s all very “Lilo & Stitch.”
The visual effects in “Jurassic World Rebirth” do not disappoint, but the action scenarios and chase scenes are just retreads of other movies. Similarly, there’s nothing terrible about the acting performances in “Jurassic World Rebirth,” but the dialogue is often just witless drivel. No one is expecting a “Jurassic” movie to be intellectual, but at least these movies should make the dialogue sound like realistic conversations, not something that could have been generated by cheap artificial intelligence. “Jurassic World Rebirth” is a movie that is ultimately stuck in the birth canal of creativity and shows no interest in evolving past its predecessors.
Universal Pictures will release “Jurassic World Rebirth” in U.S. cinemas on July 2, 2025.
Mathieu Amalric, Michael Cera, Benicio Del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Jeffrey Wright in “The Phoenician Scheme” (Photo courtesy of of TPS Productions/Focus Features)
Culture Representation: Taking place from 1950 to 1951, in Europe and in Asia, the comedy film “The Phoenician Scheme” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few Latin people and black people) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: Wealthy and corrupt business mogul Anatole “Zsa-zsa” Korda tries to avoid getting assassinated while instigating and covering up shady deals.
Culture Audience: “The Phoenician Scheme” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the filmmaker Wes Anderson, the movie’s headliners, and madcap dark comedies about eccentric people.
Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Phoenician Scheme” (Photo courtesy of of TPS Productions/Focus Features)
“The Phoenician Scheme” has more star power than story power. It’s watchable if you can tolerate filmmaker Wes Anderson’s oddball style. The cast’s performances save a plot that becomes a checklist of business betrayals and schemes.
Written and directed by Anderson, “The Phoenician Scheme” (which had its world premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival) offers more of the same types of quirky retro films that Anderson has been churning out on a regular basis. Characters talk in a clipped and rushed tone, as if they’re always in a hurry to get somewhere. There’s meticulous production design, where every location looks unnaturally photogenic, like something of out of a museum.
Anderson’s movies also tend to have cinematography that is very pastel or very rustic, occasionally peppered with black-and-white imagery. The stories, more often than not, center on a morally dubious or conflicted protagonist who’s dealing with corruption in one form or another. Various other characters scurry around or pop in and out of the story to either participate in the corruption or try to thwart it.
“The Phoenician Scheme” fits all of the above descriptions. It’s not a movie where Anderson pushes any new creative boundaries. It’s a movie where Anderson sits firmly in his comfort zone, for better or worse. In other words, you don’t like any of Anderson’s films, “The Phoenician Scheme” will not win you over into become a fan of Anderson.
The protagonist of “The Phoenician Scheme” is Anatole “Zsa-Zsa” Korda (played by Benecio del Toro), known as Korda, who is a wealthy and corrupt business mogul of vague European origins. He has business in a variety of areas, such as arms dealing, property development and transportation. Korda has a reputation for betraying colleagues through fraud and theft. Needless to say, he’s made a lot of enemies.
The first scene in the movie shows Korda narrowly escaping an assassination attempt when the side of private plane is blown up during the flight, instantly killing one of Korda’s employees. Korda tells the airplane pilot that he’s fired before killing the pilot by ejecting the pilot from the plane before it crashes. For a while, Korda goes missing, but he is found alive. Korda’s incredible survival becomes big news in the media.
Korda has more than one close brush with death during the course of the movie. Every time he comes closes to dying, he briefly visits an afterlife realm, where God (played by Bill Murray) and other celestial beings try to judge Korda. Back on Earth, another group of people can be seen judging Korda in a different way: Members of business syndicate, led by a vengeful rival named Excaliber (played by Rupert Friend), vote unanimously to stop Korda, by agreeing to a price-fixing plan that will hinder Korda from buying certain materials for his businesses.
Korda’s grand scheme is to disrupt the economy of Phoenicia. Because he knows he’s an easy target for his enemies, he tries to revamp his business affairs by making his eldest child Liesl (played by Mia Threapleton) the heir to his estate, with Korda aiming to teach Liesl his shady business practices so she can continue his legacy. The only problem is that Liesl is in the final stages of becoming a nun named Sister Liesl. At first, she says no to Korda’s requests, but Korda convinces her to accompany him for his various antics. Liesl think she can redeem her father.
Korda has been married and divorced three times. He has 11 children. His other 10 children are all sons under the age of 18: Jasper (played by Edward Hyland), David (played by Kit Rakusen), David #2 (played by Jonathan Wirtz), Phillip (played by Milo James), Michael (played by Ogden Dawson), Jamie (played by Hector Bateman-Harden), Harry (played by Benjamin Lake), Steven (played by Gunes Taner), Samuel (played by Gabriel Ryan), Thomas (played by Momo Ramadan, also known as Mohamad Momo Ramadan). It’s really just a gimmick to show 10 boys in a room where Korda really can’t keep track of them all.
Korda also persuades a Norwegian entomologist Bjørn (played by Michael Cera), who was teaching Korda about entomology, to become his personal assistant. Bjørn is attracted to Liesl, even though she is about to become a nun. Much of the interactions between Bjørn and Liesl consist of Liesl trying to avoid Bjørn’s obvious infatuation with her.
“The Phoenician Scheme” gets more convoluted in its shenanigans than what is necessary, considering that it’s a very simple plot. The story shows Korda going from place to place in Europe and in Asia, in an attempt to cover up his embezzlements and to do damage control when certain business associates find out that Korda betrayed them. These associates include subway developers Leland (played by Tom Hanks) and Reagan (played by Bryan Cranston); nightclub owner Marseille Bob (played by Mathieu Amalric); and investor Marty (played by Jeffrey Wright), who all deal with Korda’s double-crossing in various ways.
Korda embezzlement has resulted in him having a money deficit that he calls the Gap. He spends much of his time scrambling to find money to fill the Gap before certain people find out that the money is missing. Along the way, he also has encounters with a royal named Prince Farouk of Phoenicia (played by Riz Ahmed) and a radical freedom fighter named Sergio, (played by Richard Ayoade), all while dodging gun shootouts and other deadly attacks.
Korda’s biggest enemy is his half-brother Nubar (played by Benedict Cumberbatch), who is called Uncle Nubar in the movie. Nubar’s grudge is explained in the story. Also appearing in supporting roles are Scarlett Johansson as Cousin Hilda, who becomes Korda’s fiancée; Hope Davis as Liesl’s Mother Superior; Willem Dafoe as a knave; and F. Murray Abraham as a prophet.
The dialogue is filled with quips, but the personalities of the characters are sometimes two-dimensional. Because so many famous people are crammed into Anderson’s films, it seems as if quality is sacrified for quantity, when it comes to character development. Anderson’s films often become less about the plot and more about which characters his celebrity cast members are going to portray and how offbeat these characters are going to be.
There’s a world-weary drollness that del Toro gives to his character that brings some humanity to an otherwise detestable character. Threapleton is a standout and is able to hold her own in scenes with cast members who are better-known that she is. Cera (who is American in real life) is somewhat miscast because he’s never that convincing as a Norwegian. Cumberbatch hams it up as the story’s biggest villain and having the physical-appearance flamboyance (bushy beard and debnair wardobe) to match. The other cast members also consistently stick to the Anderson film tone of hyper-realism.
“The Phoenician Scheme” can be used as an example of the type of stylish screwball comedy that fits Anderson’s filmmaking formula. His movies aren’t for everyone, but viewers who are inclined to like his films will probably find something to enjoy about “The Phoenician Scheme.” However, the movie gets repetitive, and there’s not much of a plot. “The Phoenician Scheme” should also be a wakeup call that Anderson needs to focus more on presenting better stories instead of over-relying on casting many famous people to populate his movies.
Focus Features will release “The Phoenician Scheme” in select U.S. cinemas on May 30, 2025, with a wider release to U.S. cinemas on June 6, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on July 8, 2025. “The Phoenician Scheme” will be released on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray on July 29, 2025.
D-16/Megatron (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry), Alita-1 (voiced by Scarlett Johansson, Orion Pax/Optimus (voiced by Chris Hemsworth and B-127 (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key) in “Transformers One” (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)
Culture Representation: Taking place in outer space, the animated film “Transformers One” has a group of characters that are talking robots.
Culture Clash: A group of miner robots that will later become Transformers find out why they have been oppressed and fight back against the enemy.
Culture Audience: “Transformers One” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the “Transformers” franchise and eye-catching action animated films.
Sentinel Prime (voiced by Jon Hamm) in “Transformers One” (Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures)
For better or worse, “Transformers One” is for die-hard “Transformers” fans. This origin story has appealing visuals and action, but the plot might be too confusing for viewers who are new to the franchise. It’s one of the those movies that rushes through a world-building summary in the introduction and assumes that most people watching will already know the intricacies of the major characters in the “Transformers” franchise.
Directed by Josh Cooley, “Transformers One” was written by Eric Pearson, Andrew Barrer and Gabriel Ferrari. “Transformers One” is one of several “Transformers” movies (animated and live-action) and animated TV series that have been spawned from the original “Transformers” animated TV series that was on the air from 1984 to 1987. The TV series and movies are all based on Hasbro’s Transformers toys of outer-space robots that can transform into moving vehicles.
“Transformers One” begins by explaining that on the planet Cybertron, a being called Primus birthed a race of supreme robots called Primes that can transform into moving vehicles. Primes need a special feul for a healthy existence called Energon. For generations, Cybertron had peace and prosperity, until it was invaded by enemies. Many of the Primes were killed, Energon became scarce, and most of the surviving robots of Cybertron were forced into identured servitude as underground miners, who are forbidden to go to the surface of the planet.
It’s during this bleak period that a rebellious miner robot named Orion Pax (voiced by Chris Hemsworth) tries to find out more about the history of this invasion. He discovers a hologram-like archive that talks about this history. However, the archive cuts off just before it will tell details about a mysterious force called the Matrix and information about the Matrix leadership. Orion Pax believes that finding out the secret of the Matrix can free the miners from their oppression.
Orion Pax’s best friend is another miner robot named D-16 (voiced by Brian Tyree Henry), who has a personality that almost the opposite of Orion Pax. D-16 is very cautious and feels strongly that the best way for miners to live is to not ask questions and always follow the rules. D-16 tells Orion Pax, “We’re miners. We mine. That’s all.”
The tryannical supervisor of the miners is Darkwing (voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.), who doesn’t hesttate to punish anyone who breaks the rules. Darkwing reports to the leader of the land: Sentinel Prime (voiced by Jon Hamm), who is worshipped as a hero for being one of the last surviving Primes. Sentinel Prime is very charismatic and has been telling his followers that he and his team have been searching for the Matrix leadership so that they can find more Energon.
Orion Pax is too curious to listen to D-16’s advice to always follow the rules. Several antics ensure that get Orion Pax and D-16 in various degrees of trouble. Without giving away too much information, it’s enough to say that Orion Pax and D-16 join forces with two other miner robots: outspoken Alita-1 (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and goofy B-127 (voiced by Keegan-Michael Key), who was banished to a secret lower level of the planet.
“Transformers One” has a lot of terrific action sequences accompanied by dazzling visuals. However, some of the plot developments are a bit repetitive. How many times does Orion Pax have to “punished” in ways that make it somewhat easy for him to escape? Predictably, there’s also a “secret villain” who is easy to figure out if you’ve seen enough of these types of movies.
The “Transformers One” voice performances are perfectly fine, considering that the characters in the movie are robots, not human beings with complex personalities. The “Transformers One” characters who aren’t the core four heroes (Orion Pax, D-16, Alita-1 and B-127) tend to be a bit one-dimensional. Hemsworth and Henry capably handle the dynamics of the friendship-turned-feud between Orion Pax and D-16.
This very male-centric movie could have had more females in prominent speaking roles. The only other notable female character has a small supporting role: Airachnid (voiced by Vanessa Liguori), a spider-like Transformer that can turn into a helicopter. Other characters in “Transformers One” are elderly Alpha Trion (voiced by Laurence Fishburne), villainous Starscream (voiced by Steve Buscemi) and music-loving Jazz (voiced by Evan Michael Lee).
It’s not a secret that certain characters in “Transformers One” will take on new identities that they have in other “Transformers” movies and TV shows with storylines that take place after the events of “Transformers One.” Orion Pax becomes Optimus Prime, heroic leader of the Autobots. D-16 becomes Megatron, evil leader of the Decepticons, the sworn enemies of the Autobots. B-127 (who also give himself the nicknames B and Badassatron in “Transformers One”) becomes Bumblebee, an ally of Optimus Prime.
“Transformers One” offers an interesting but formulaic look into what these characters were like before they were Transformers and how they got their Transformers superpowers. The movie’s brief end-credits scene is energetic but ultimately not necessary. People who are inclined watch sci-fi animated films should find many entertaining aspects to “Transformers One,” which can inspire new fans to watch more “Transformers” movies and TV shows to get a better understanding of the “Transformers” universe.
Paramount Pictures will release “Transformers One” in U.S. cinemas on September 20, 2024.
Culture Representation: Taking place in 1969, in Florida and briefly in New York and Louisiana, the comedy/drama film “Fly Me to the Moon” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: An ambitious advertising executive and a patriotic NASA flight director have conflicts over how to handle marketing and media coverage of the historic Apollo 11 spaceflight that was the first to send people to the moon.
Culture Audience: “Fly Me to the Moon” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of stars Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, movies about NASA, and dramedies that present revisionist versions of real history.
Scarlett Johannson and Channing Tatum in “Fly Me to the Moon” (Photo courtesy of Apple Original Films and Columbia Pictures)
“Fly Me to the Moon” is a breezy and charming comedy/drama that tells an alternate and often-satirical version of planning media coverage of NASA’s historic Apollo 11 spaceflight. Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum carry this movie over some of its bumpier parts. It’s the type of movie that will have the most appeal with people who have good knowledge of American history (especially when it comes to NASA) and can appreciate movies that poke fun at how easily the media can be manipulated.
Directed by Greg Berlanti and written by Rose Gilroy, “Fly Me to the Moon” is based on a story by Bill Kirstein and Keenan Flynn. The movie takes place during an untold number of weeks leading up to and including July 20, 1969, the date that the Apollo 11 spaceflight put the first people on the moon. The movie has a little bit of something for everyone: scientific adventure, emotional drama, suspenseful thrills, lighthearted comedy and entertaining romance.
“Fly Me to the Moon” begins with a voiceover from a character who is later introduced as Moe Berkus (played by Woody Harrelson), who says he works in the office of the U.S. president. (Richard Nixon was president of the U.S. at the time. And although his name is mentioned a few times in the movie, he’s not a character in the film.) Moe is a government official who acts more like a spy than someone who has a typical administrative job.
An opening montage sequence explains how the Space Race competition between the Untied States and Russia (which was then known as the U.S.S.R.) heated up in the 1960s, as both countries competed to be the first to send people to the moon. In a 1962 speech at Rice University, then-U.S. President John F. Kennedy stated that the U.S. would accomplish this goal before the end of the 1960s.
In 1969, Cole Davis (played by Tatum), a bachelor with no children, is NASA’s launch director at Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida. He is confident and has the respect of his team. It’s later revealed that Cole is a Vietnam War veteran who used to be a military pilot. He had trained to be a NASA astronaut but had to leave the astronaut training program when it was discovered that his heart had a fibroid. Cole also has some emotional baggage, including remorse and guilt, over his involvement in the tragic Apollo 1 spaceflight where three astronauts died.
Kelly Jones (played by Johansson), a bachelorette with no children, is also an assertive achiever who sees herself as highly motivated. She works for a New York City-based advertising agency called Hoover. Kelly knows she’s in a male-dominated profession, so she uses her wit and charm to impress people who underestimate her. An early scene in the movie shows Kelly (who’s wearing a fake baby bump to appear pregnant) astounding an all-male group of executives working for a car company client during a conference room meeting. She tells all of the executives in the meeting what types of cars they drive and what types of cars they should be driving.
These weren’t lucky guesses from Kelly. She did her homework in researching these executives. An unethical reason for her success in business is that she has a long history of presenting fake stories, images situations as being real. More of Kelly’s past is revealed in the story. Why did she fake a pregnancy in a business meeting? It’s an example of how far Kelly is willing to go to manipulate people into thinking that she’s more vulnerable than she really is, in order to get what she wants.
Someone who has noticed Kelly’s “smoke and mirrors” skills is Moe, who can be either stern and smirking in the way that he interacts with people. He approaches Kelly in a bar, introduces himself as someone who works for the U.S. president, and shows her proof that he knows a lot of secrets from her past, including Kelly having a history of creating false identities for herself. Moe tells Kelly that he can make her shady past go away if she takes NASA as a client to market the Apollo 11 spaceflight to the public.
Moe explains that Apollo 11 has a public relations crisis because many people, including several influential politicians, think that the U.S. government is spending too much money to try to send people to the moon. At the time, sending people to the moon was still considered an improbable science fiction fantasy. Kelly’s job would be to “sell” Apollo 11 as not only patriotic but also an opportunity for capitalists to make a lot of money. Kelly feels she has no choice but to take this job, and she sees it as a challenge that she can conquer.
And so, Kelly goes to Kennedy Space Center with her trusted assistant Ruby Martin (played by Anna Garcia), who is openly a liberal feminist. Ruby says she has a problem with the job if it means they’re working for politically conservative Richard Nixon, but Kelly assures Ruby that their client is really NASA. The budget for this job is much lower than what Kelly usally gets. She and Ruby have to stay at a motel. And to their dismay, their office at NASA is cluttered and small.
Soon after arriving in Florida, Kelly is by herself in a diner when Cole walks in and looks at her as if he’s immediately attracted to her. Kelly notices Cole staring and her, and they both try to play it cool. He finally approaches her.
They have their “meet cute” moment when he notices that a candle on her table has accidentally lit a book on fire. Cole quickly puts out the fire, and she offers to buy him a drink. He tells her that he doesn’t drink alcohol. Later, it’s revealed that Cole is also very religious. In other words, Cole and Kelly have opposite lifestyles.
Kelly notices that Cole is wearing a NASA pin. They have some casually flirtatious conversation where she plays coy about who she is and exactly what she’s doing in this part of Florida. Before Cole leaves, he is somewhat bashful and a little awkward when he tells her that she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen. Cole thinks he’ll probably never see her again, but there would be no “Fly Me to the Moon” movie if this was just a one-time encounter between Cole and Kelly.
Cole inevitably finds out who Kelly is and what she’s doing at Kennedy Space Center. When they see each other again, she’s giving orders on his turf. And he doesn’t like it one bit. When two people who are accustomed to getting their own way have to work together and disagree, arguments and other conflicts predictably ensue. And when those two people have sexual tension with each other, the conflicts get even more complicated and personal.
“Fly Me to the Moon” takes a while before it gets the parts of the movie that are the most interesting. A lot of screen time is taken up by somewhat repetitive scenes of Cole disliking almost every idea that Kelly has in order for her to make the Apollo 11 spaceflight more appealing to skeptics. Soon after finding out that he has to work with Kelly, Cole tells her to forget about what he told her about how he thinks she’s the most beautiful woman he’s ever seen because he wants their relationship to be strictly platonic. (And we all know that’s a lie because they’re obviously attracted to each other)
Kelly’s ideas involve things such as product placement and marketing the Apollo 11 astronauts as product spokespeople; hiring actors to pretend to be NASA officials (including Cole) who don’t want to do media interviews; and creating fake personal histories about herself, in order to make herself more relatable to politically conservative U.S. Senators whose votes are needed to get more funding for Apollo 11. In very unrealistic-looking scenes, Kelly suddenly acts like a political lobbyist and has separate meetings with U.S. Senator Hopp from Georgia (played by Gene Jones) and U.S. Senator Cook from South Carolina (played by Colin Jost, who’s married in real life to Johansson). And then, Cole gets in on the lobbying too when he and Kelly have dinner with Senator Vanning from Louisiana (played by Joe Chrest) and his wife Jolene Vanning (played by Stephanie Kurtzuba) in the Vanning family home.
Some of the other NASA people at Kennedy Space Center who work closely with Cole include executive launch director Henry Smalls (played by Ray Romano) and two engineers in their 20s: resourceful Stu Bryce (played by Donald Elise Watkins) and nerdy Don Harper (played by Noah Robbins), who becomes Ruby’s love interest. The three Apollo 11 astronauts—Neil Armstrong (played by Nick Dillenburg), Buzz Aldrin (played by Colin Woodell) and Michael Collins (played by Christian Zuber)—are given somewhat generic personalities and are not the focus of the story. There’s also a stray black cat hanging out at Kennedy Space Center, much to the annoyance of Cole, who doesn’t like this cat because he thinks the cat is bad luck.
Moe isn’t at Kennedy Space Center all the time to see how Kelly is doing her job, but he has ways of monitoring what she’s doing. He orders her to do something that is highly unethical, which is already revealed in the “Fly Me to the Moon” trailers: Film an alternative version of the Apollo 11 moon landing where everything goes perfectly, and pretend that this recording is a live telecast of the real moon landing.
Moe has a name for this massive lie about Apollo 11: He calls it Project Artemis. Moe pressures a reluctant Kelly to carry out this scam because he says it’s a matter of national security. “This isn’t just a race for the moon,” Moe says in a lecturing tone to Kelly. “This is a race for the ideology that gets to run things.”
Kelly recruits her longtime director colleague Lance Vespertine (played by Jim Rash) to be a part of the scheme. Lance, who is a very fussy and flamboyant prima donna, directs commercials (he has the nickname “the [Stanley] Kubrick of commercials”), but he really wants to direct prestigious movies. Rash is a hilarious scene stealer and gets some of the best lines in the movie, although some viewers might find the Lance character kind of irritating.
When it comes to recreating 1969, “Fly Me to the Moon” is at its best with the movie’s production design, costume design, makeup and hairstyling. Some of the dialogue and mannerisms aren’t quite convincing because they seem too influenced by later decades. Tatum in particular has some scenes where he comes across as too 21st century. (And there are some sleek, lingering shots of him staring into the distance as if he’s in a fashion ad.)
Johansson (who is one of the producers of this movie) is more believable as a retro character who is living on the cusp of the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s. Kelly often blurs the lines between being a coquettish sex symbol and being fiercely independent feminist. Some of the scenarios in the movie go a little overboard in making it look like Kelly can get anyone to do anything she wants just because she’s a beautiful blonde.
Tatum and Johansson together have crackling chemistry in their scenes together. Cole and Kelly don’t really seem like soul mates because a lot of their attraction to each other has to do with their physical looks and the way they like to compete with each other. For most of the movie Cole doesn’t ask Kelly very much about herself because he’s too busy arguing with her and trying to assert his authority. Kelly has many secrets and has no qualms about being a habitual liar, so it’s questionable if she’s capable of having a truly honest relationship.
All of those questions are put on the back burner when the last third of the movie takes a “race against time” turn concerning the big fraudulent Project Artemis plan that Moe wants Kelly to carry out on behalf of the U.S. government. Kelly is also ordered to keep this scheme a secret from almost everyone at NASA, including Cole. “Fly Me to the Moon” has a heightened sense of glossy movie glamour that shows it’s not intended to be a historically accurate movie. It’s pure escapist fantasy that mixes some parts of real-life history with fictional main characters and 1960s nostalgia. It all results in an entertaining movie experience whose best moments outshine any flaws.
Apple Original Films and Columbia Pictures will release “Fly Me to the Moon” in U.S. cinemas on July 12, 2024. Sneak previews of the movie took place in U.S. cinemas on July 1 and July 5, 2024.
Culture Representation: Taking place in 1955, in the U.S. Southwest and in New York City, the comedy film “Asteroid City” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Told as a stage play within a TV show, “Asteroid City” tells the story of how a small town reacts to a visit from an outer-space alien.
Culture Audience: “Asteroid City” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of filmmaker Wes Anderson and comedies with intentionally quirky characters and sometimes bizarre scenarios.
Scarlett Johansson in “Asteroid City” (Photo courtesy of Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features)
“Asteroid City” is exactly what you think a Wes Anderson movie is about how people react to seeing an outer-space alien. The comedy is hit or miss. Anderson’s recent movies seem like they’re competing with each other to have the most celebrity cameos. “Asteroid City” (which was directed by Anderson) had its world premiere at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Anderson co-wrote the “Asteroid City” screenplay with Roman Coppola, who is a cousin of Jason Schwartzman, one of the stars of the film.
“Asteroid City,” which is set in 1955, is told as a play within a TV show. All it means is that it’s an excuse to add more stars to the already star-studded cast. Overstuffing the movie with famous cast members can actually be detriment when most of these characters remain underdeveloped. And it will just lead to disappointment for the fans of the cast members (many of whom could easily headline films on their own) when they find out that the screen time of many of these celebrities is barely enough to be in a short film.
The constant parade of stars also seems like showboating from Anderson and the other “Asteroid City” filmmakers, as if to prove that all of these famous people are so in awe of Anderson, they’d be willing to do even the tiniest role in one of his movies. It certainly might explain why Margot Robbie has an utterly useless role as an unnamed actress/wife in “Asteroid City,” where all she does in the movie is talk for a few minutes in a forgettable conversation. “Asteroid City” makes good use of its principal cast members, but gets bogged down by all the distracting celebrity cameos.
The movie begins with black-and-white footage of a nameless TV host (played by Bryan Cranston) explaining that viewers will be getting a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a play called “Asteroid City.” The play is written in New York City by playwright Conrad Earp (played by Edward Norton), while the ensemble cast is led by Jones Hall (played Schwartzman) and Mercedes Ford (played by Scarlett Johansson). This behind-the-scenes footage is in black and white (as it would be in television in 1955), but the scenes with the play are in bright Technicolor-inspired lighting that would have been standard with movies released in 1955.
Schubert Green (played by Adrien Brody) is the play’s director. Polly (played by Hong Chau) is Schubert’s assistant. Saltzburg Keitel (played by Willem Dafoe) has a classroom that is used as rehearsal space for the play. All three of these characters are seen in short interludes and don’t add much to the overall story.
Asteroid City is in an unnamed state in the U.S. Southwest. In the “Asteroid City” play, a war photographer named Augustine “Augie” Steenbeck (also played by Schwartzman) is a recent widower. He is on a road trip by car to Asteroid City, a very small Southwestern town (population: 87), where the biggest attractions are a large meteor crater and a celestial observatory nearby. Augie is traveling with his 14-year-old son Woodrow Steenbeck (played by Jake Ryan) and triplet daughters Andromeda (played by Ella Faris), Pandora (played by Gracie Faris) and Cassiopeia (played by Willan Faris), who are about 7 or 8 years old.
The Steenbeck family is going to Asteroid City for the weekend celebration of Asteroid Day, commemorating September 27, 3007 B.C., when the Arid Plains meteorite crashed on Earth. Woodrow is also set to get a prize as one of the five winners of the Junior Stargazer Space Cadet Awards, given to young people who are aspiring astronomers. However, Augie’s car breaks down in Asteroid City. A unnamed, bumbling mechanic (played by Matt Dillon) is the nearest person who can fix the car.
After Augie finds out that he and his children are stuck in Asteroid City, Augie calls his stern father-in-law Stanley Zak (played by Tom Hanks) to ask Stanley to pick up the kids because “the car exploded.” Stanley is reluctant to come to the rescue of his stranded son-in-law and grandchildren because Stanley thinks that Augie needs to take responsibility for the kids. Stanley is annoyed that Augie has not told the children that the children’s mother (who was Stanley’s daughter) died three weeks ago.
It’s mentioned in the movie that she died from a unnamed illness. Eventually, Augie awkwardly tells the children about their mother’s death. He also tells them that she has been cremated. Her ashes are in a plastic bowl that Augie has with him. And as soon as cremated ashes of a loved one are shown in a comedy, you just know that something is going to happen to those ashes in a comedic part of the plot.
Meanwhile, this small town is about to get a much bigger temporary population when more visitors arrive. These other guests include famous actress Midge Campbell (played by Johansson), who (by her own admission) is vain and selfish. She is in Asteroid City because her teenage daughter Dinah (played by Grace Edwards) is one of the recpients of the Junior Stargazer Space Cadet Award. It’s mentioned that Midge has two younger children from her marriage to her second ex-husband
Also in Asteroid City is country musician Montana (played by Rupert Friend) and his band. Montana dresses like a cowboy and seems to be attracted to a schoolteacher in her 20s named June (played by Maya Hawke), who has arriveed by school bus with a class of 10 students, who are each 8 years old. Montana and June, like many of these supporting characters, have no real bearing on the outcome of the story.
Other visitors to Asteroid City who are very extraneous characters include egotistical businessman JJ (played by Liev Schrieber) and his mild-mannered teenage son Clifford (played by Aristou Meehan), who only seem to be in the movie to show that Augie and Woodward aren’t the only characters in “Asteroid City” who have father/son tensions. Clifford is one of the award recipients.
Other unnecessary characters are Sandy (played by Hope Davis) and her teenage daughter Shelly (played by Sophia Lillis), who are only memorable for wearing matching Girl Scout-type uniforms. Shelly is also one of the award recipients. It makes no difference to the movie’s story if there were three, four or five teens getting these awards.
Another parent-teen duo in “Asteroid City” are scientist Roger (played by Stephen Park) and his overachieving son Ricky (played by Ethan Josh Lee), who has somewhat of a rivalry with Woodrow about who knows the most about astronomy. Ricky is actually essential to the plot, since he makes a certain decision regarding the outer-space alien. Ricky’s decision has an effect on other plot developments. Meanwhile, Woodrow and Dinah have a growing attraction to each other.
Steve Carell is in the movie for less than five minutes as the manager of Asteroid City’s only motel. The observatory is run by Dr. Hickenlooper (played Tilda Swinton), who us the expected eccentric character that Swinton always to plays in Anderson’s movies. A crater meteorite that’s the size of a softball is one of the prized possessions on display at the observatory.
A very by-the-book military officer named General Grif Gibson (played by Jeffrey Wright) is in Asteroid City to lead the Asteroid Day festivities, which includes a tour of the observatory, a picnic supper, the viewing of the Astronomical Ellipses, and the awarding of the annual Hickenlooper Scholarship. General Gibson has a trusted, unnamed aide-de-camp (played by Tony Revolori), who is just a rehash of the “eager young man” roles that Revolori has played in other Wes Anderson movies.
The first half of “Asteroid City” is a string of vignettes where the characters are quirky and often blurt out things in a tactless way that’s supposed to be amusing. Augie and Midge are the most “no filter” of these characters. And so, it should come as no surprise that they become attracted to each other. It’s just like a Wes Anderson movie for two single parents to be attracted to each other at the same time the parents’ two teenage kids are attracted to each other.
“Asteroid City” doesn’t get really interesting or amusing until the arrival of the space alien, which is filmed like it would be for a stage production. The reactions to this space alien are the movie’s commentaries on greed and exploitation in society. There’s nothing wrong with any of the performances by the cast members. But it says a lot that “Asteroid City,” which is filled with talented people (many of whom are Oscar winners and Oscar nominees), doesn’t have an Oscar-worthy performance in the bunch. The movie’s production design is impeccable, but “Asteroid City” is a comedy that’s more enamored with the setup of jokes rather than the jokes themselves.
Focus Features released “Asteroid City” in select U.S. cinemas on June 16, 2023, with a wider expansion to more U.S. cinemas on June 23, 2023.
Pictured in front row, from left to right: Klaus Kickenlober (voiced by Adam Buxton), Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton), Meena (voiced by Tori Kelly), Porsha Crystal (voiced by Halsey), Clay Calloway (voiced by Bono), Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), Darius (voiced by Eric André), Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) and Gunter (voiced by Nick Kroll) in “Sing 2” (Image courtesy of Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures)
Culture Representation: Taking place in the fictional U.S. city of Redstone City and briefly in the fictional U.S. city of Calatonia, the animated film “Sing 2” features a predominantly white cast of actors (with a few black people) voicing the characters of talking animals that are connected in some ways to showbiz.
Culture Clash: The owner and star performers of Calatonia’s New Moon Theater take their act to Redstone City, the nation’s entertainment capital, in the hopes of becoming bigger stars, but the ruthless mogul who can give them their big break expects the group’s act to include a reclusive rock star who hasn’t performed live in 15 years.
Culture Audience: Besides appealing to the obvious target audience of “Sing” fans and fans of the movie’s voice cast members, “Sing 2” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching a “jukebox musical” with a poorly constructed, flimsy plot.
Pictured from left to right, beginning second from left: Jimmy Crystal (voiced by Bobby Cannavale), Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton), Gunter (voiced by Nick Kroll), Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey), Meena (voiced by Tori Kelly), Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon) and Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johansson) in “Sing 2” (Image courtesy of Illumination Entertainment/Universal Pictures)
Plagued by “sequel-itis,” the animated musical “Sing 2” sacrifices character development for a plot that sloppily rushes storylines and then turns into a commercial for Bono and U2’s music at the very end. The movie loses much of the charm of 2016’s “Sing” by having the main characters go off on different tangents and by introducing several new characters that are presented in a very superficial way. The “Sing” movie series (which is about talking animals, many of which can sing) also loses a lot of comedic appeal with “Sing 2,” by introducing a murderous villain that drags down the story with soulless acts of evil.
This decline in quality can’t be blamed on a change in filmmaker leadership. “Sing” and “Sing 2” were both written and directed by Garth Jennings and have the same producers (Janet Healy and Christopher Meledandri), as well as the same chiefs of certain departments, such as film editing, visual effects and music. The voice actors of most of the lead characters in “Sing” reprised the same roles for “Sing 2.”
Considering all of the talented people involved, it’s a disappointment that so much of “Sing 2” seems like a lazily conceived cash grab that does nothing innovative. The entire movie lacks suspense (there are absolutely no surprises) and over-relies on stringing together what are essentially separate animated music videos and trying to make it look like it’s all part of a cohesive plot. The visuals of “Sing 2” are perfectly fine, but there should be more to a movie than it just looking good.
Sequels are supposed to tell you more about the main characters, but “Sing 2” fails in this regard because you won’t learn almost anything new about the main characters from watching this sequel. “Sing 2” continues to have an overload of pop hits (original recordings and cover versions), but it’s less effective in this sequel, compared to the first “Sing” movie. That’s because “Sing 2” is essentially a mediocre “jukebox musical,” where song placement is more important than having a well-written storyline and memorable dialogue. Most of the new characters in “Sing 2” have hollow and stereotypical personalities.
“Sing 2” also follows a predictable plot formula for the second movie in an animated series: The main characters travel out of their home environment and get involved in new adventures somewhere else. And there’s nothing inherently wrong with that formula if it’s done with an engaging story. (It’s a formula that Pixar Animation has mastered with many of its sequels.) Unfortunately, “Sing 2” does not have a story that’s very interesting.
“Sing 2” is also one of those sequels that doesn’t do a very good job of introducing the main characters to viewers who didn’t see the first “Sing” movie. “Sing 2” assumes that people seeing this sequel are already familiar with the main characters. But that’s an assumption that just makes the screenwriting look even lazier than it needed to be.
Some of the characters in the first “Sing” movie struggled with different personal issues. For example, one character has a criminal parent who discouraged him from being a singer, and that parent ended up being incarcerated for a robbery. Another character suffered from stage fright. If any those issues are mentioned in “Sing 2,” they’re vague references when they should be a little more detailed, to give the characters more depth. In addition, “Sing 2” doesn’t really mention that all of the main characters that are singers met each other through a talent contest that was the focus of the first “Sing” movie.
If you must waste your time on the inferior “Sing 2,” it’s best to see the first “Sing” movie so you can understand the backstories of the main characters and see their real personalities. In “Sing 2,” almost all of the main characters’ personalities are reduced to soundbite-like dialogue in between singing songs. The good news is that all of the cast members who sing do a very fine job with their performances.
In “Sing” (which takes place in the fictional U.S. city of Calatonia), an ambitious koala named Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) owns an inherited theater that’s in danger of shutting down due to his financal problems. In order to get publicity for the theater and increase attendance, Buster holds a talent contest that attracts several Calatonia residents, and some of these characters end up being the stars of the contest. In “Sing 2,” Buster wants to take his productions out of regional theater and into the big leagues of a Vegas-styled musical show.
These singing stars from the “Sing” talent contest make their return in the “Sing 2” movie:
Rosita (voiced by Reese Witherspoon), a pig who’s a harried housewife and a mother of 25 piglets.
Ash (voiced by Scarlett Johansson), a porcupine who’s a rock singer/guitarist and a feminist.
Johnny (voiced by Taron Egerton), a gorilla who can play sing and piano a lot like Elton John.
Meena (voiced by Tori Kelly), an elephant who’s shy and insecure except when she’s singing.
Gunter (voiced by Nick Kroll), a pig who’s flamboyant and an occasional duet partner with Rosita.
Also returning for “Sing 2” is Buster’s eccentric administrative assistant Miss Crawly (voiced by writer/director Jennings), an iguana with a glass eye that often falls out and causes mishaps. Making cameos in “Sing 2” are two other characters from the first “Sing” movie: Johnny’s gorilla gangster father Big Daddy (voiced by Peter Serafinowicz) and elderly sheep Nana Noodleman (voiced by Jennifer Saunders), who is a wealthy benefactor and former theater diva.
In the beginning of “Sing 2,” New Moon Theater (the venue owned by Buster) is presenting a musical production of “Alice in Wonderland,” with Meena in the starring role of Alice. The show is a local hit that plays to sold-out audiences. During a performance, Buster is excited to see that an important talent scout named Suki Lane (voiced by Chelsea Peretti) is in the audience and taking notes.
Suki (who is a brown dog that can walk upright and has human-like arms and legs ) works for the mega-company Crystal Entertainment in Redshore City, the entertainment capital of the nation. Redshore City is designed to look a lot like Las Vegas. Miss Crawly tells Buster that Suki has been paying attention to the show and seems to be entertained.
After the performance, Buster rushes after Suki to talk to her before she can leave. He asks her what she thought of the show. Suki haughtily replies, “It’s a cute little show, but it’s not what we’re looking for. You’re not good enough. You’ve got a nice little local theater here, and it’s great for what it is, but trust me: You’d never make it in the big leagues.”
Buster is stung by this criticism, but he’s not ready to give up so easily. Even if his productions are considered regional theater, he knows that these shows have value because they frequently sell out. Suki gets in a chauffeured car to leave. Buster chases after the moving car on his bike, and he holds on to the car door to continue to talk to Suki.
Suki thinks that Buster is crazy and tells the driver to speed up, in order to get rid of Buster. Buster is essentially run off of the road, and he lands in a nearby canal. This debacle is witnessed by several residents who are near the canal. It’s a humiliating moment for Buster, but it’s played for laughs in the movie.
A discouraged Buster tells Nana about Suki’s rejection. He moans, “I’m a failure!” Nana scolds Buster for letting this setback make him think that he should give up. She tells him that if he doesn’t believe in himself and what he has to offer, then no one else will. Buster takes this advice and decides to round up Meena, Rosita, Ash, Johnny, Gunter and Miss Crawly to go on a road trip with him to Redstone City. The goal is to convince Crystal Entertainment to let them do a musical at the much-larger and more famous Crystal Tower Theater.
Ash already has a paying gig at a local rock club in Calatonia, but she’s being underpaid. When Buster meets up with Ash to ask her to go on the trip, he sees her backstage after a performance, right before she’s supposed to do an encore. The club owner/manager hands Ash a paycheck, and she’s annoyed because the amount is far less than what other artists at the club are getting paid.
Ash says to the club owner/manager: “I have a rule about not letting guys like you tell me what I’m worth. Unless I get paid like everyone else, I’m outta here!” And with that, she walks out of the building with Buster, without doing the encore.
The owner of Crystal Entertainment is Jimmy Crystal (played by Bobby Cannavale), who is literally and figuratively a wolf. He’s a hard-nosed, ruthless business mogul who insists that people call him Mr. Crystal. He is first seen judging auditioners at Crystal Tower Theater and giving red-buzzer rejections to every act, no matter how talented the act is.
Meanwhile, Buster and his group have arrived at Crystal Entertainment headquarters, but they don’t make it past the reception area because they don’t have an appointment. However, they go in a side employee entrance, find some sanitation worker uniforms, and disguise themselves as sanitation workers, in order to sneak into the auditions.
After a quick change back into their regular clothes, this enterprising group sneaks onto the audition stage. Buster makes an earnest pitch to offer his theater group for a musical show at Crystal Tower Theater. Mr. Crystal rejects them, of course. Buster tries to get Mr. Crystal to change his mind, but Mr. Crystal doesn’t want to hear it and is infuriated that these rejected auditioners don’t want to leave the stage.
Just as Mr. Crystal is about to have them thrown out, he overhears Gunter say that Gunter is a fan of Clay Calloway, a rock superstar lion who has been in seclusion for the past 15 years. Mr. Crystal asks if they know Clay. Buster lies and says yes. Mr. Crystal then changes his mind and says that he’ll agree to let Buster’s group do a show at the Crystal Tower Theater, on one condition: Clay Calloway has to be part of the act too.
Buster continues to lie and says it won’t be a problem because he and Clay are friends. When Mr. Crystal asks what the name of the show is, Gunter comes up with a title on the spot: “Out of This World.” It’s described as an outer-space musical. Mr. Crystal doesn’t care about the details because he just wants Clay Calloway to perform at the Crystal Tower Theater.
Mr. Crystal gives Buster and his group just three weeks to produce the show. He puts them up in the Crystal Tower Hotel and pays for all of their expenses. Buster is elated and decides he’ll figure out a way to convince Clay Calloway to be a part of the show. Ash is a big fan of Clay’s and she wants to go with Buster for this persuasive visit. Ash explains that Clay has become a grieving recluse ever since the death of his wife Ruby, who was his muse.
In the meantime, Buster works with Gunter on the concept for the “Out of This World” musical. They come up with the idea to have Rosita star as an astronaut looking for an outer-space explorer, with Gunter as a robot sidekick/aide. During this mission, she will have to visit four planets that have four different themes: war, love, despair and joy. This idea is as poorly conceived as it sounds.
Meanwhile, there’s more to Mr. Crystal than meets the eye. When an uninteresting movie like this is filled with hackneyed stereotypes, here’s one more: Mr. Crystal is really a gangster. A Vegas-styled hotel/casino owner who’s involved with illegal activities? Where did the filmmakers get this idea?
“Sing 2” starts to go off the rails in how it presents the preparations for this horrendous “Out of This World” musical production, by having the stars of the show go off in different directions with silly subplots. Rosita decides to invite her husband Norman (voiced by Nick Offerman) and their 25 kids to Redstone City. (After all, Mr. Crystal is paying for everything.) And so, there’s a scene of the kids being brats as they invade a food buffet area in the hotel and cause all types of chaos.
Rosita is playing an astronaut who has to do some high-flying stunts on stage. And therefore, it’s not a good time for Rosita to find out that she’s afraid of heights. Around the same time, Mr. Crystal insists that his daughter Porsha Crystal (voiced by Halsey) will be the star of the show. Buster is put in the awkward position of telling Rosita that she’s being replaced in the starring role. Porsha is a spoiled airhead who sounds like she’s spent too much time watching “Jersey Shore.”
Johnny is supposed to play a dancing gladiator-type of warrior in “Out of This World,” but Johnny doesn’t know how to dance. And so, the show’s uptight and mean-spirited monkey choreographer Klaus Kickenklober (voiced by Adam Buxton) makes Johnny’s life a living hell. But what do you know: One day, Johnny sees a sassy lynx street dancer named Nooshy (voiced by Letitia Wright), who attracts an enthusiastic crowd. Johnny is impressed with Nooshy’s talent, so he hires her to give him private dance lessons.
Meena, who is very inexperienced when it comes to dating, is paired with a conceited yak actor named Darius (voiced by Eric André), so she’s dreading the love scenes that they have to do in the musical. “Sing 2” has such slipshod screenwriting, Meena’s and Darius’ character roles in “Out of This World” are never clearly defined, except to show that they’re supposed to play each other’s love interest in “Out of This World.” Darius could have been breakout “Sing 2” character as a hilarious buffoon, but he’s mainly brought out for some underwhelming scenes where the jokes fall flat.
Meanwhile, Meena catches the eye of a mild-mannered elephant named Alfonso (voiced by Pharrell), an ice cream truck vendor. It’s obvious that Alfonso wants to date Meena, but she’s bashful about how to handle it. Alfonso compliments Meena on her singing talent, but she’s afraid to have conversations with him. None of these new supporting characters in “Sing 2” has a backstory or fully developed personality.
Meanwhile, there’s a time-wasting scene where Miss Crawly drives to reclusive rock star Clay’s estate (while System of a Down’s “Chop Suey!” is playing), to find out if she can get access to him. Some more problems ensue involving her glass eye, because the filmmakers seem to want to make Miss Crawly’s glass eye the main gimmick for the slapstick comedy about her. Needless to say, Miss Crawly is unsuccessful in getting to Clay. Buster and Ash decide to give it a try.
The second trailer for “Sing 2” already revealed that Clay (voiced by Bono, lead singer of U2) does come out of seclusion to perform on stage. But even if this major plot development hadn’t already been disclosed, it would be very easy to predict. The movie blandly and vaguely handles how Clay is convinced to come out of seclusion.
“Sing 2” is Bono’s animated feature-film debut as an actor. Bono’s speaking voice in this role is lowered one or two octaves from his real speaking voice. It seems like he’s trying to sound like a husky-voiced American rock star (somewhat like a combination of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Waits), but Bono’s natural Irish accent can still occasionally be heard in the dialogue.
As for the music of “Sing 2,” just like the first “Sing” movie, a lot of it comes in snippets of one minute or less per song. Songs that drop in for a longer than a minute (but still quickly) include Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy,” Elton John’s “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” Mercury Rev’s “Holes,” Billie Eilish’s “Bad Guy,” DNCE’s “Cake by the Ocean,” Shawn Mendes’ “There’s Nothing Holdin’ Me Back,” Eve’s “Who’s That Girl” and Camila Cabello and Mendes’ “Señorita.”
The longer musical numbers are serviceable, although there are a few standout moments. Halsey shines in her biggest number, when she sings a rousing rendition of the Struts’ “Could Have Been Me.” Halsey’s version of Alicia Keys’ “Girl on Fire” is also impressive. Johansson does nicely with her cover version of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”
However, the Tori Kelly/Pharrell Williams duet of Dionne Warwick’s “I Say a Little Prayer” has no heat. It’s also a very tame song selection for the characters of Meena and Alfonso, who are supposed to be in the early stages of a romance. Their first duet should’ve been more of a passionate love song or a more emotion-filled song about longing for love.
It seems like the “Sing 2” filmmakers bent over backwards to make Bono and his Clay character overshadow the movie’s last 15 minutes to steal the show. In the first “Sing” movie, main characters Rosita, Meena, Ash and Johnny all had their big individual singing moments in the spotlight. In “Sing 2,” everyone seems to have to clear a path for Bono/Clay.
In “Sing 2,” the Johnny character is woefully under-used as a singer. The movie seems more concerned about showing him awkwardly learning dance moves. It’s a shame, really, because Egerton is such a talented singer. His rendition of Elton John’s “I’m Still Standing” in the first “Sing” movie was one of the catalysts to Egerton being cast in John’s 2019 musical biopic “Rocketman.”
“Sing 2” is essentially a vehicle to promote U2’s music in the latter half of the movie. There are four U2 songs in “Sing 2”: the aforementioned “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” and “Your Song Saved My Life,” which was written for the “Sing 2” soundtrack. Obviously, “Your Song Saved My Life” is supposed to be Clay’s big moment. “Your Song Saved My Life” isn’t bad, but it’s not outstanding, and it won’t be considered a U2 classic.
If you want to know another reason “Sing 2” is such a disappointing mess, the filmmakers made Bono—one of the most charismatic rock stars on the planet—a dull and dreary character in this movie. The Clay character could’ve been played by almost anyone, but it seems like in order to get U2’s music for this movie, the filmmakers had to cast Bono in this role. It’s too bad that Bono and the rest of the talented voice actors are stuck in this hack karaoke project that has a major studio budget.
Universal Pictures will release “Sing 2” in U.S. cinemas on December 22, 2021.
Culture Representation: Taking place in Norway and Russia and briefly in Ohio, Hungary and Morocco, the superhero action film “Black Widow” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few black people and Asians) representing heroes, villains and people who are in between.
Culture Clash: Russian American superhero Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, battles an evil nemesis from her past named Dreykov, who has sent an assassin named Taskmaster to kill anyone who gets in the way of Dreykov’s goal of world domination through mind control.
Culture Audience: “Black Widow” will appeal primarily to people who already know a lot about what’s going on in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Scarlett Johansson (pictured at right) in “Black Widow” (Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)
If you’re not familiar with the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), then “Black Widow” might be too confusing for long stretches of the movie. For everyone else, “Black Widow” offers a satisfactory but not particularly outstanding chapter to the MCU. The best parts of the movie are the scenes showing the interpersonal dynamics between an estranged foster family that reunites, because the movie’s visual effects and villains aren’t as compelling as other MCU movies with the Black Widow character.
Directed by Cate Shortland and written by Eric Pearson, “Black Widow” takes place primarily in 2016, in the period of time between 2016’s “Captain America: Civil War” and 2018’s “Avengers: Infinity War.” Viewers who haven’t seen or don’t know anything about “Captain America: Civil War” before seeing “Black Widow” will feel like they’ve stepped into a world that has passed them by, because there are several key plot developments in “Captain America: Civil War” that are necessary to know in order to fully appreciate “Black Widow.”
“Black Widow” is strictly a movie for MCU fans, because it assumes that people watching this movie know about have or have seen “Captain America: Civil War” and the other MCU movies leading up to it. “Black Widow” is not the movie for you if you don’t know the answers to these questions before watching the movie: “What is S.H.I.E.L.D.?” “What is Hydra?” “Who else is in the Avengers?”
Likewise, if you don’t know that Avengers superhero Black Widow, also known as Natasha Romanoff (played by Scarlett Johansson), died at the end of 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame” (it’s really not spoiler information at this point), then the end-credits scene in “Black Widow” won’t make much sense. Julia Louis-Dreyfus is in the “Black Widow” end-credits scene, which makes a direct reference to Black Widow’s death and who Black Widow was with when she died, because it’s a likely revenge plot for a Marvel series on Disney+ or a MCU sequel. The “Black Widow” end-credits scene takes place at the gravestone of Natasha Romanoff, so anyone who sees “Black Widow” who didn’t know that she died will have that part of “Avengers: Endgame” spoiled for them.
If you know absolutely nothing about the MCU and Black Widow (whose first MCU appearance was in 2010’s “Iron Man 2”), then here’s what “Black Widow” does fairly well: It shows more of her backstory, in terms of how she was raised at a certain point in her childhood and why she got separated from her biological family and her foster family. The highlights of “Black Widow” are what happens when she reunites with the foster family she had for three years when she was a child.
Each of these family members has gone on to be involved in shady dealings of the Russian government. It’s an often-contentious, sometimes poignant and occasionally humorous reunion. Their up-and-down interactions speak to the love/hate feelings that people have for past or present loved ones. And that’s the humanity that makes “Black Widow” more than just a bunch of action scenes in a big-budget superhero movie.
“Black Widow” opens with a scene taking place in Ohio in 1995. Alexei Shostakov (played by David Harbour) and Melina Vostokoff (played by Rachel Weisz) are a Russian immigrant couple raising two girls on a rural farm. The older girl, who’s 11 years old, is a young Natasha Romanoff (played by Ever Anderson), while the younger girl is Yelena Belova (played by Violet McGraw), who’s 6 years old. Why do they all have different last names? Because they’re not biologically related to each other, but they have been living together as a family for three years.
Life seems to be “normal” for this makeshift family when a day comes that the Alexei and Melina have been dreading: The family will be separated by the Russian government. Some military-looking operatives invade the home one night, but Alexei and Melina have already planned their escape. Melina pilots a small plane with Natasha and Yelena as the passengers, while Alexei tries to keep the home invaders away from the plane, by shooting at the invaders with a rifle.
The plan to escape ultimately fails. Melina is shot but not gravely wounded. A terrified but quick-thinking Natasha takes over in piloting the plane. However, this family of four eventually couldn’t evade caputure, even though Natasha pulls a gun on the military men tasked with separating the family. Alexei hands over a mysterious computer disc to a man named General Dreykov (played by Ray Winstone), who is the one in charge of this home invasion. Meanwhile, the girls are drugged and taken away from the only parents they’ve known up to this point.
The movie then fast forwards to 2016. Natasha is in Norway, and is now a fugitive running from U.S. general Thaddeus Ross (played by William Hurt), because she’s has been accused of assaulting the king of Wakanda. (That’s a reference to the African nation of “Black Panther,” in case you didn’t know.) Natasha is also in violation of the Sokovia Accords, a set of regulations for people with superpowers, especially people working for government agencies. Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America, is also a fugitive, although he does not make an appearance in this “Black Widow” movie.
Natasha has been hiding out in a trailer somewhere in rural Norway. Several times in the movie, Natasha will make a reference to the falling out that the superhero group the Avengers had in “Captain America: Civil War.” As her trusted friend Mason (played by O-T Fagbenle) tells her as he hands her a stack of fake IDs to use, “I hear the Avengers are getting divorced.” Any viewers expecting any of the other Avengers to make a surprise appearance in “Black Widow” will be disappointed. Mason also gives Natasha a box of unopened mail that he says came from the Budapest safe house where she previously stayed.
“Black Widow” follows the typical superhero movie trope of a villain wanting to gain possession of an object that will help the villain take over the world. In this movie, it’s explained in a somewhat convoluted way that Dreykov and his cronies have been capturing female orphans and other vulnerable girls. The captured girls are held in a Red Room torture facility in Russia, where the girls are forced to be in a spy program.
In the Red Room, the victims undergo chemical treatments that alter their brain and allow Dreykov to have mind control over them. All of the victims’ reproduction organs are removed, and they grow up to become trained assassins called Widows, who do Dreykov’s bidding. Depending on how much their brains have been manipulated, the Widows have varying degress of memories of their lives before the Red Room.
Natasha and Yelena both spent time in the Red Room, but the movie has no flashbacks to this painful period of time in their lives. However, it’s revealed in conversations that Natasha was brainwashed but able to escape from the Red Room and never underwent the chemical treatments to the brain. Natasha’s spy life in America eventually led her to join the Avengers. Yelena wasn’t so lucky: She got the Red Room’s brain altering chemical treatment, which leaves her vulnerable to Dreykov’s mind control.
It’s why Yelena is seen in Morocco fighting an operative named Oksana (played by Michelle Lee), who is stabbed by Yelena in an outdoor street battle. Before Oksana dies, she takes a capsule and sprays Yelena with a mysterious red gas. Yelena seems to come out of a trance, and Yelena is soon reported as a deserter. It’s later revealed that this red gas is an antidote to Dreykov’s mind control. And that’s why he wants to get all of this antidote that exists in the world.
Somehow, Natasha has a stash of this antidote, so Dreykov sends a mysterious assassin named the Taskmaster after her to get this stash. The Taskmaster is completely covered in armor and doesn’t speak. Therefore, viewers will be guessing who’s really inside the armor. Is it a human being? A robot? Something else? The identity of the Taskmaster is eventually revealed in the last third of the movie.
Because Natasha currently feels all alone in the world, her emotions are raw when she has a tension-filled reunion with an adult Yelena (played Florence Pugh) when they see each other at that safehouse in Budapest. They have a big brawl that leads to an uneasy truce when they find out that they both want to get revenge on Dreykov because he separated their family. Natasha and Yelena also want to defeat Dreykov because they want to stop what’s going on in the Red Room.
Up until Natasha and Yelena reunited, Natasha assumed that Natasha had killed Dreykov in a building explosion that Natasha caused shortly before she joined S.H.I.E.L.D. (S.H.I.E.L.D. is an acronym for the spy/counter-intelligence/superhero-affiliated agency Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.) But when Yelena asks Natasha if she actually saw Dreykov’s dead body, Natasha replies, “There was no body left to check.”
Dreykov’s daughter Antonia (played by Ryan Kiera), who was about 9 or 10 years old at the time, was also in the building when it exploded. And that’s why Dreykov has an extra-personal grudge against Natasha. A flashback scene shows that Natasha knew that Antonia was in the building when Natasha gave the go-ahead for the building to be detonated. The way Natasha describes it to Yelena, Antonia was “collateral damage.”
This cold and calculating side to Natasha is frequently displayed in the story to contrast with Yelena being hotheaded and impulsive. If Yelena is like fire, then Natasha is like ice. The personality differences between these two women can result in their frequent conflicts with each other. But other times, the contrasts between Yelena and Natasha can work to their benefit when they have to team up for a shared goal.
And even though these two women haven’t lived as sisters in 16 years, there’s still some leftover sibling rivalry. Yelena calls Natasha a “poser” because of the crouching stance that Black Widow is known for before she goes in on an attack. Yelena also mocks the way that Natasha whips her hair around during a fight, as if she’s doing a photo shoot. This “poser” insult becomes a recurring joke in the movie.
There’s also a tinge of jealousy in Yelena’s teasing of Natasha. At one point in the movie, Yelena says in an envious tone to Natasha: “We are both trained killers, except I’m not the one on the cover of a magazine. I’m not the killer that little girls call their hero.”
In another part of the conversation, Yelena explains the differences between what she experienced in the Red Room and what Natasha experienced: “What you experienced was psychological conditioning. [With what I experienced], I’m talking about chemically altering brain functions—they’re two completely different things.” Yelena says what it feels like to have the chemical alterations to the brain: “You’re fully conscious but you don’t know which part is you.”
Natasha is the one who brings up the idea of going to the Red Room and killing Dreykov once and for all. Yelena replies, “That sounds like a shitload of work.” Natasha says with a smirk, “It could be fun though.”
And where have Alexei and Melina been since they last saw Natasha and Yelena? Alexei has been in a Russian gulag, where he has been fuming over all the glory and notoriety that Captain America has gotten all over the world. That’s because Alexei has a superhero alter ego named Red Guardian, whose superhero career was cut short when Dreykov betrayed Alexei and made sure that Alexei was sent to prison. Needless to say, Alexei is very bitter about it.
Melina has being working as a scientist, so those skills come in handy when Melina, Alexei, Natasha and Yelena eventually reunite. This “family reunion” is not a surprise, since it’s been in “Black Widow” trailers and is a big selling point for the movie. The initial awkwardness of the reunion—and some of the sarcastic wisecracks that ensue—bring much of the movie’s comic relief.
“Black Widow” has the expected high-energy chase and fight scenes, including a far-fetched sequence of Natasha and Yelena helping Alexei escape from prison. The movie’s visual effects are hit and miss. There’s a big action sequence that takes place in the snow that is one of the standouts. But there are a few scenes that involve explosions where the fire looks too fake.
Even though Black Widow is a superhero, she’s not immune to getting fire burns. And yet, there are too many moments where she’s right in the thick of explosions, and she doesn’t get the serious fire burns that someone would get in real life. Some of the movie’s more dramatic scenes have cinematography that’s drenched in psychedelic red, which viewers will either think looks great or annoying.
Alexei and Melina are kind of like the MCU version of “The Honeymooners” couple Ralph Kramden and Alice Kramden. Alexei is a lot of bluster and ego, while Melina is his “been there, done that” calmer counterpart. There’s a comedic scene where Alexei tries to impress his reunited family, by putting on his old Red Guardian costume, but due to his weight gain since he last wore it, he has a hard time fitting into the costume.
On a more serious note, there’s a scene with Alexei, Natasha and Yelena in a heliocopter where Alexei makes a crude comment to Yelena by asking her if she’s being so uptight because she’s menstruating. Yelena reminds Alexei that she doesn’t menstruate because her reproductive organs were removed in the Red Room. Yelena then gives a detailed description of what reproductive organs were removed, until a very uncomfortable Alexei tells them to stop talking about it. Yelena then says impishly that she was just about to talk about fallopian tubes.
Although this scene has a sarcastic tone to it, it’s a not-so-subtle commentary on the gender politics that are part of this movie’s storyline. The Red Room is an obvious metaphor for a toxic patriarchy where a male villain is responsible for literally ripping away reproductive rights. And throughout “Black Widow,” the women are the ones who make the best and bravest decisions. Alexei has his heroic moments too, but he’s often outsmarted and outshined by the women in his life.
And if weren’t obvious enough in the movie’s trailers, there’s no doubt when watching all of “Black Widow” that this movie is a launching pad for Yelena, who’s clearly going to be a big part of the MCU. Pugh tends to be a scene stealer in all of her movies, and “Black Widow” is no exception, since Yelena brings a lot of relatable strengths and flaws to this character. Johansson’s Natasha/Black Widow is the ice queen in charge, but some of her emotional ice is melted in effective scenes where she finds out the truth about her biological family and how she ended up in the Red Room.
Most of the actors depicting the characters who are supposed to have Russian accents aren’t actually Russian in real life. Johansson and Harbour are American, while Pugh, Weisz and Winstone are British. Ukrainian French actress Olga Kurylenko is in the movie, but she’s in a role that is supposed to be among the plot twists. Out of all the non-Russian actors who have Russian accents in the movie, most are good but not excellent at sounding Russian, except for Winstone who definitely needed more Russian dialect training.
Shortland’s direction of “Black Widow” strikes a mostly well-paced balance between action, drama and touches of comedy. The movie’s biggest flaws are in how little regard it has for viewers who might be new to the MCU and who will have no idea what the characters are talking about for a great deal of “Black Widow.” In other words, “Black Widow” is definitely not a stand-alone MCU movie. Just like a web that a black widow spider can weave, the movie’s a little too tangled up in other MCU storylines and is best enjoyed by people who’ve already seen most if not all the other MCU movies that have Black Widow.
Disney’s Marvel Studios will release “Black Widow” in U.S. cinemas and at a premium extra cost on Disney+ on July 9, 2021.
Paul Bettany and Elizabeth Olsen in “WandaVision” (Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios)
With four prizes, including Best Show, the Disney+ superhero series “WandaVision” was the top winner at the 2021 MTV Movie & TV Awards. The hybrid live/virtual ceremony, hosted by Leslie Jones, took place over two nights. On May 16, the winners of the scripted categories were annnounced from the Palladium in Los Angeles. On May 17, the winners of the unscripted categories were announced.
“WandaVision” went into the ceremony with the most nominations (five), while VH1’s drag-queen reality series “RuPaul’s Drag Race” had four nominations. “RuPaul’s Drag Race” won three awards: Best Competition Series, Best Reality Cast and Best Reality Host, a prize given to RuPaul. The awards in the competitive categories were voted for by the public at MTV.com.
In the non-competitive categories, the honorees were Sacha Baron Cohen for the Comedic Genius Award; Scarlett Johansson for the MTV Generation Award; and “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” for the MTV Reality Royalty Lifetime Achievement Award.
Here is the complete list of winners and nominees:
*=winner
SCRIPTED
BEST MOVIE Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Judas and the Black Messiah Promising Young Woman Soul To All the Boys: Always and Forever*
BEST SHOW Bridgerton Cobra Kai Emily in Paris The Boys WandaVision*
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A MOVIE Carey Mulligan – Promising Young Woman Chadwick Boseman – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom* Daniel Kaluuya – Judas and the Black Messiah Sacha Baron Cohen – The Trial of the Chicago 7 Zendaya – Malcolm & Marie
BEST PERFORMANCE IN A SHOW Anya Taylor-Joy – The Queen’s Gambit Elizabeth Olsen – WandaVision* Elliot Page – The Umbrella Academy Emma Corrin – The Crown Michaela Coel – I May Destroy You
BEST HERO Anthony Mackie – The Falcon and the Winter Soldier* Gal Gadot – Wonder Woman 1984 Jack Quaid – The Boys Pedro Pascal – The Mandalorian Teyonah Parris – WandaVision
BEST KISS Chase Stokes & Madelyn Cline – Outer Banks* Jodie Comer & Sandra Oh – Killing Eve Lily Collins & Lucas Bravo – Emily in Paris Maitreyi Ramakrishnan & Jaren Lewison – Never Have I Ever Regé-Jean Page & Phoebe Dynevor – Bridgerton
BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE Annie Murphy – Schitt’s Creek Eric Andre – Bad Trip Issa Rae – Insecure Jason Sudeikis – Ted Lasso Leslie Jones – Coming 2 America*
BEST VILLAIN Aya Cash – The Boys Ewan McGregor – Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) Giancarlo Esposito – The Mandalorian Kathryn Hahn – WandaVision* Nicholas Hoult – The Great
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE Antonia Gentry – Ginny & Georgia Ashley Park – Emily in Paris Maria Bakalova – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Paul Mescal – Normal People Regé-Jean Page – Bridgerton*
BEST FIGHT Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) – Final Funhouse Fight Cobra Kai – Finale House Fight The Boys – Starlight, Queen Maeve, Kimiko vs. Stormfront WandaVision – Wanda vs. Agatha* Zack Snyder’s Justice League – Final Fight vs. Steppenwolf
MOST FRIGHTENED PERFORMANCE Elisabeth Moss – The Invisible Man Jurnee Smollett – Lovecraft Country Simona Brown – Behind Her Eyes Victoria Pedretti – The Haunting of Bly Manor* Vince Vaughn – Freaky
BEST DUO Barb & Star Go To Vista Del Mar – Star (Kristen Wiig) & Barb (Annie Mumolo) The Falcon and the Winter Soldier – Falcon (Anthony Mackie) & Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan)* The Mandalorian – Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal) & Grogu Emily in Paris – Emily Cooper (Lily Collins) & Mindy Chen (Ashley Park) Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan – Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen) & Tutar Sagdiyev (Maria Bakalova)
UNSCRIPTED
BEST DOCU-REALITY SHOW Below Deck Mediterranean Black Ink Crew New York Bling Empire Jersey Shore Family Vacation* Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta
BEST DATING SHOW 90 Day Fiancé Ex On The Beach Love Is Blind Ready to Love The Bachelorette*
BEST REALITY CAST 90 Day Fiancé Jersey Shore Family Vacation Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta RuPaul’s Drag Race* The Real Housewives of Atlanta
BEST COMPETITION SERIES Legendary RuPaul’s Drag Race* The Challenge The Circle The Masked Singer
BEST LIFESTYLE SHOW Deliciousness Fixer Upper: Welcome Home Making The Cut Nailed It!* Queer Eye
BEST NEW UNSCRIPTED SERIES Bling Empire Cardi Tries Selena + Chef* The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City VH1 Family Reunion: Love & Hip Hop Edition
BEST TALK / TOPICAL SHOW A Little Late with Lilly Singh Red Table Talk The Breakfast Club The Daily Show with Trevor Noah* Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen
BEST COMEDY / GAME SHOW Floor Is Lava Impractical Jokers* Kids Say the Darndest Things Nick Cannon Presents: Wild ‘N Out Ridiculousness
BEST HOST Nicole Byer – Nailed It! Rob Dyrdek – Ridiculousness RuPaul – RuPaul’s Drag Race* T.J. Lavin – The Challenge Tiffany Haddish – Kids Say the Darndest Things
BREAKTHROUGH SOCIAL STAR Addison Rae Bretman Rock* Charli D’Amelio Jalaiah Harmon Rickey Thompson
BEST REAL-LIFE MYSTERY OR CRIME SERIES Catfish: The TV Show* Evil Lives Here Night Stalker: The Hunt for a Serial Killer Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness Unsolved Mysteries
BEST FIGHT Selling Sunset – Chrishell Stause vs. Christine Quinn The Real Housewives of New Jersey – Jackie Goldschneider vs. Teresa Giudice Untucked: RuPaul’s Drag Race – Kandy Muse vs. Tamisha Iman Keeping Up With The Kardashians – Kourtney Kardashian vs. Kim Kardashian West* Legendary – Law Roach vs. Guest Judge Dominique Jackson
BEST INTERNATIONAL REALITY SERIES Acapulco Shore Geordie Shore Love Island (ITV)* ¡Nailed it! México RuPaul’s Drag Race UK
Leonardo DiCaprio at the CinemaCon photo call for Columbia Pictures’ “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on April 23, 2018. (Photo by Eric Charbonneau)
Charlize Theron at the “Long Shot” screening at the Paramount Theater during the 2019 SXSW Conference And Festival in Austin, Texas, on March 9, 2019 .
Brad Pitt at the world premiere of “Once Upon a Time In Hollywood” during the 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, France, on May 21, 2019. (Photo by Anthony Harvey/REX/Shutterstock)
Ana de Armas from “Knives Out” at the Lionsgate CinemaCon presentation at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas on April 4, 2019.
Kerry Washington at the 29th Producers Guild Awards at Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California, on January 20, 2018. (Photo by John Salangsang/Invision for Producers Guild of America/AP Images)
Rami Malek at the 2019 Tribeca Film Festival’s Tribeca Talks – A Farewell to “Mr. Robot” at Spring Studio in New York City on April 28, 2019. (Photo by Nicholas Hunt/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival)
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the organization the votes for the Golden Globe Awards) and Dick Clark Productions (which co-produces the Golden Globes telecast) have announced the presenters of the 2020 Golden Globe Awards ceremony, which takes place January 5 at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills California. NBC will have the U.S. telecast of the show, beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time/5 p.m. Pacific Time.
Here are the presenters in alphabetical order:
Tim Allen
Jennifer Aniston*
Christian Bale*
Antonio Banderas*
Jason Bateman
Annette Bening*
Cate Blanchett*
Matt Bomer
Pierce Brosnan
Glenn Close
Daniel Craig*
Ted Danson
Ana de Armas*
Leonardo DiCaprio*
Ansel Elgort
Chris Evans
Dakota Fanning
Will Ferrell
Lauren Graham
Tiffany Haddish
Kit Harington*
Salma Hayek
Scarlett Johansson*
Elton John*
Nick Jonas
Harvey Keitel
Zoe Kravitz
Jennifer Lopez*
Rami Malek*
Kate McKinnon
Helen Mirren
Jason Momoa
Gwyneth Paltrow
Amy Poehler
Brad Pitt*
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
Margot Robbie*
Paul Rudd*
Wesley Snipes
Octavia Spencer
Bernie Taupin*
Charlize Theron*
Sofia Vergara
Kerry Washington
Naomi Watts
Rachel Weisz
Reese Witherspoon*
*2020 Golden Globe Awards nominee
Ricky Gervais is hosting the show. Tom Hanks will be receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement, while Ellen DeGeneres will be getting the Carol Burnett Award, which is given to people who have excelled in comedy. The Carol Burnett Award debuted at the Golden Globes in 2019, and Burnett was the first recipient of the prize. Dylan and Paris Brosnan (sons of Pierce Brosnan) will serve as the 2020 Golden Globe Ambassadors.
Click here for a complete list of nominations for the 2020 Golden Globe Awards.
