‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ Review: What Has Po Gotten Himself Into This Time?

March 7, 2024

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Skadoosh Skadoosh Skadoosh Skadoosh (CREDIT: DreamWorks Animation)

Starring: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Dustin Hoffman, James Hong, Bryan Cranston, Ian McShane, Ke Huy Quan, Lori Tan Chinn, Ronny Chieng

Director: Mike Mitchell

Running Time: 94 Minutes

Rating: PG for Typical Cartoon Mayhem

Release Date: March 8, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Giant panda Po’s (Jack Black) status as the Dragon Warrior has always been met with skepticism by some of the other talking animals around him. But now he’s actually expected to retire and find a successor, as he settles into a role as more of a local wise man. That feels like even less of a natural fit for this rotund goofball, but luckily Kung Fu Panda 4 is more interested in sending him on one last great adventure. A shapeshifting reptile known as The Chameleon (Viola Davis) is stealing all the kung fu masters’ powers, so Po teams up with streetwise fox Zhen (Awkwafina) for what might be his most dangerous mission yet. Fortunately (or annoyingly), his biological dad (Bryan Cranston) and his adoptive goose dad (James Hong) are sneakily following right behind to make sure nothing too deadly happens to their boy.

What Made an Impression?: Locating the Lore: Before this fourth cinematic outing, I’d only ever seen the first Kung Fu Panda. I was hoping to catch up with 2 and 3, but alas, I didn’t get around to it. I wasn’t too worried about those shortcomings, though, because this series isn’t exactly beholden to impenetrably dense mythology the way that less kid-friendly franchises often are. Still, in addition to the big screen sequels, it has spawned multiple TV spin-offs that add up to more than a hundred total episodes. So while I didn’t exactly feel lost in the Kung Fu Panda lore, I did get the sense that there have probably been more fulfilling adventures in Po and Co.’s pasts. Jack Black is infinitely charming (and he delivers a killer cover of a certain late 90s pop hit during the end credits), but my mind drifted to all sorts of other topics while I watched KFP4.
Rolling Around: So while KFP4 didn’t exactly make me immediately seek out my own martial arts training, at least the animation is reliably colorful and engaging. It makes solid use of the geography, with Po and his cohorts rolling around and causing mayhem on cobbled streets and imposing castles. And there are some solid visual gags dispersed throughout, including a riff on that old saying about bulls in a china shop, as well as a moment with Po summoning his (multiple) inner voice(s). They didn’t exactly release my inner child, but they were worth a few chuckles.
Who’s That Voice?: My mental energy during this viewing was mostly spent on trying to identify the actor behind Po’s dad Li Shan. I was pretty sure I knew him primarily as a sitcom dad. And while that did turn out to be accurate, it’s been nearly two decades since that was his signature gig. Meanwhile, my viewing companion confessed that it took her nearly the entire running time to pinpoint Viola Davis’ inimitable purr as the voice of the big baddie. Honestly, film culture doesn’t talk often enough about the great joy of trying to identify voiceover performances without looking at the credits. We should rectify that.

Kung Fu Panda 4 is Recommended If You Like: The underdog (or the underpanda, as it were) remaining the underdog forever

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Skadooshes

In Search of Perfection (24-Hour Style)

February 28, 2024

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Drinkin’ in those perfect days (CREDIT: NEON/Screenshot)

Starring: Koji Yakusho

Director: Wim Wenders

Running Time: 124 Minutes

Rating: PG

Release Date: February 7, 2024 (Theaters)

After watching Perfect Days, I feel compelled to now ask: would I like to have my own perfect days? Hirayama (Koji Yakusho) certainly seems a fellow worth emulating in particular ways as he gets on by as a toilet cleaner. (It certainly helps that the public Japanese facilities are much more whimsical than those in America, at least in the park where he’s assigned to.) While a series of perfect days would by definition sound pretty great, in practice I worry that they would instead be exhausting. But of course then they wouldn’t actually be perfect! Maybe we should all just take some inspiration from Hirayama and his lack of concern about paradoxes and see where that takes us.

Grade: 2 Lous out of 3 Reeds

‘Dune: Part Two’ Makes a Case for Everyone to Take a Hit of That Spice

February 27, 2024

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Timothee Chalamet as The Dune Man (CREDIT: Warner Bros. Pictures/Screenshot)

Starring: Timothée Chalamet, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgård, Christopher Walken, Charlotte Rampling, Souheila Yacoub

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Running Time: 165 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Sword and Knife Fights, Mostly

Release Date: March 1, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: They’re still feeling spicy after all these years! After the ending of 2021’s Dune saw Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet) teaming up with the rebellious Fremen, Part Two picks up right where things left off on the desert planet of Arrakis. Elsewhere, House Harkonnen has their sights set on clamping down on their control of Arrakis for good, with the violently unstable Feyd-Rautha (Austin Butler) promoted as the new governor. This whole situation has a significant portion of the Fremen believing that Paul and his mother (Rebecca Ferguson) have arrived on Arrakis to fulfill a messianic prophecy. Other Fremen, however, including the hot-blooded Chani (Zendaya), are a little less convinced of that savior narrative. Nevertheless, Paul does seem to be willing to do the work to prove both his loyalty and his freedom fighting bona fides.

What Made an Impression?: It Makes More Sense Now: My introductory synopsis could have gone into a lot more detail, but I do try to keep things succinct in that section. And that’s especially important in the case of a movie like this one, because so much of it would sound like psychedelic sci-fi gobbledygook to the uninitiated. Which, to be fair, it is psychedelic sci-fi gobbledygook. But on the other hand, the culture at large has become much more initiated into the world of Frank Herbert in just the two and a half years since the last Denis Villenueve-directed adaptation. I certainly count myself among those who now have a far greater understanding of what Dune is all about. Great movies have a way of teaching you how to watch them, and despite being a nearly-three-hour space opera epic, Dune: Part Two is gratifyingly easy enough to understand. It’s a simple hero’s journey, complicated by skepticism, and all the baroque details are there to support that overarching theme.
A Vision Realized: 2021’s Dune was fairly praised for its stunning visuals, but perhaps they were a little too stunning. That is to say, their sublime bigness kind of lulled me to sleep. But by contrast in Part Two, the settings are often blazingly bright, so it’s hard not to keep your eyes open. That’s how it goes when most of the running time is spent on a desert planet! From the explosive emergence of the famously feared sandworms, to the stormy wrangling of those same sandworms, the spectacles of Arrakis are brought to unforgettable life, with clean and crisp editing and cinematography making it clear exactly what we’re supposed to be seeing. It all adds up to a simple, but impeachable union, of technical proficiency and thematic confidence, which is in fact the formula for successful blockbuster filmmaking.

Dune: Part Two is Recommended If You Like: Heterochromia, The Rick and Morty episode where they “do a Die Hard,” Grappling with religion

Grade: 4.5 out of 5 Fremen

It’s a Gay Old Time with the ‘Drive-Away Dolls’!

February 21, 2024

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What’s in the box?! (CREDIT: Wilson Webb/Working Title/Focus Features)

Starring: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Colman Domingo, Beanie Feldstein, Bill Camp, Joey Slotnick, C.J. Wilson, Pedro Pascal, Matt Damon, Miley Cyrus

Director: Ethan Coen

Running Time: 84 Minutes

Rating: R for Unabashed Sexuality and Sucker Punch-Style Violence

Release Date: February 23, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: It’s 1999, and good friends Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) decide to take an impromptu road trip from Philadelphia to Tallahassee, Florida. Jamie is slipping out of yet another messy relationship, while Marian is too buttoned-up to have ever made a move on anybody. They’re both gay, but they’ve never considered each other as serious prospects. But perhaps that could change over the course of the next few days, as vacationing and stress both tend to make people closer. And this is certainly going to be a stressful ride, as a couple of criminal goons (Joey Slotnick, C.J. Wilson) are hot on their tails when the car rental joint mistakenly loans them a vehicle with a very valuable piece of luggage in its trunk.

What Made an Impression?: Those Old Reliable Yuks: After making some of the most beloved movies of the past few decades, brotherly filmmaking duo Joel and Ethan Coen have taken a creative break from each other. If their first solo directorial efforts are any indication, then it was Joel who specialized in the dark and probing drama, and Ethan who drifted towards their unique brand of wacky yet droll comedy. With Drive-Away Dolls, Ethan has teamed up with his wife Tricia Cooke for screenwriting duties, and the result very much sits on a continuum of Raising Arizona, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski, with a series of Jenga-like misunderstandings leading to comically violent escalation.
Out and Loud: Speaking of continuums, Jamie and Marian are part of the Coen-esque tradition of protagonists who don’t quite realize what type of movie they’re in before it’s too late to do anything about it. That’s mainly because they’re too busy being their unapologetically gay selves. Marian is certainly a lot more reserved than Jamie, but that doesn’t mean she’s ashamed in any way about her sexual orientation. Interestingly enough, though, they never really encounter any homophobia. That’s partly because they spend most of their time in defiantly gay spaces, but also because the straight people they stumble across just couldn’t be bothered to be bigoted. (Will & Grace did premiere in 1998, after all, so maybe those folks have been watching it.)
Secrets But No Shame: I don’t want to give away the truth about the package, partly because it would be rude to be a spoiler, but also because I want my review to be as family-friendly as possible. Let’s just say then that it involves a politician and a very personal form of pleasure. And when you have public ambitions bumping up against private escapades like that, it often leads to over-the-top shenanigans. That’s certainly the case in Drive-Away Dolls, much to our demented delight.

Drive-Away Dolls is Recommended If You Like: The comedy half of the Coens

Grade: 3.5 out of 5 Makeout Sessions

Getting Caught Up in ‘Madame Web’

February 20, 2024

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The Four Madames (CREDIT: Sony Pictures)

Starring: Dakota Johnson, Sydney Sweeney, Isabel Merced, Celeste O’Connor, Tahar Rahim, Adam Scott, Kerry Bishé, Emma Roberts, Zosia Mamet, Mike Epps, José María Yazpik

Director: S.J. Clarkson

Running Time: 116 Minutes

Rating: PG-13

Release Date: February 14, 2024 (Theaters)

It’s finally here!

Madame Web… what an experience. I can barely believe what I just watched, but I’m so grateful I did.

I can see the future now, but only a thin slice of it, specifically the part in which Madame Web becomes a midnight movie classic.

Half of it is run-of-the-mill meh mediocre. But that other half… It’s like the people who made this movie were half-asleep during all of 2003 and tried to recreate that year through telepathy.

The Amazon is a trip, man. They don’t make realities like this anymore!

Grade: Mike Epps and Emma Roberts Are Weirdly Also in This

‘Bob Marley: One Love’ Attempts to Capture a Singular Superstar

February 9, 2024

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Get Up, Stand Up, Go See a Movie. (CREDIT: Paramount Pictures)

Starring: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton, Daniel Mellville Jr., Sevana, Hector Lewis, Tosin Cole

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Running Time: 104 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Political Violence and Some Herbal Remedies

Release Date: February 14, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: It’s 1976, and Jamaican reggae musician Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) is on the brink of unfathomably massive superstardom. Meanwhile, his native Jamaica is being torn asunder by violence between rival political factions. After an assassination attempt leaves him and his wife Rita (Lashana Lynch) seriously injured, he flees for his safety to England. Meanwhile, he’s also in the midst of a world tour and preparation for a new album that will become the most acclaimed of his career. On top of all that, he’s trying to pretty much unite all of humanity with spiritual enlightenment. Alas, a deadly disease is looming in the way of every single one of his plans.

What Made an Impression?: Savior of the World?: I don’t know if this was intentional on the part of director Reinaldo Marcus Green or his team of screenwriters, but Bob Marley: One Love struck me as a rather messianic story. The parallels with Marley’s life and Jesus Christ are striking: death in their 30s, attempts on their lives, the spread of a new religion, efforts to forgive their enemies. The connection isn’t perfect, as One Love certainly doesn’t portray Bob as immaculate, and his cause of death is cancer, rather than a state-sanctioned execution. But it is notable that the movie’s story begins just a few years before his death, with some flashbacks to his childhood. Rock stars often inspire religious fervor in their legions of fans, and I don’t know if that’s ever been more true than in the case of Bob Marley.
Ya Mon or Not Ya Mon?: I’m no expert on Jamaican patois, and One Love doesn’t make much of an effort to accommodate me or anyone else who lacks that fluency. Even Kingsley Ben-Adir has admitted that he didn’t understand everything the real Bob Marley was saying when he watched videos of him to prepare for the role. And there are scenes within the film when non-Jamaicans struggle to make sense of him. Captions might have helped in this regard, but only to a certain extent. Still, I always got the gist of what was happening, and I ultimately appreciated the decision to keep it authentic this way.
Getting the Story Out There: One Love wisely keeps its narrative focus on a compressed time period, but besides that, it doesn’t distinguish itself with a whole lot of personality among the rock star biopic heap. We don’t get to see much of Ben-Adir performing, and when Bob Marley’s songs do play, it’s usually just a non-diegetic jukebox approach. Then the story stops somewhat abruptly, and we get the typical end titles about what else happened. Quite frankly, some of the events that were left out sound a lot more dramatically compelling than what was left in. So while One Love doesn’t quite reach the loftiest of heights, it at least doesn’t detract from its subject’s legacy. And if it inspires some viewers to dig into his discography and embrace his message of unity, well then it will have brought some good into the world.

Bob Marley: One Love is Recommended If You Want: To Research Everything About Bob Marley That Wasn’t Included in the Movie

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Dreadlocks

How to Become ‘Scrambled’ at the Movies

February 8, 2024

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How Scrambled are they?! (CREDIT: Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions)

Starring: Leah McKendrick, Ego Nwodim, Andrew Santino, Clancy Brown, Laura Cerón

Director: Leah McKendrick

Running Time: 97 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: February 2, 2024 (Theaters)

Scrambled is about a single 34-year-old woman named Nellie (Leah McKendrick, who also wrote and directed) who decides to freeze her eggs in case she doesn’t get pregnant the usual way anytime soon. So of course, I now have to ask: would I like to become scrambled myself?

Obviously, I can’t go on the same exact journey as Nellie, seeing as I don’t have a body that ovulates. But I certainly could one day undergo some medical procedure that requires me to poke needles into my body in preparation. That begs the question: could I actually stomach such a regimen? Perhaps my experience watching Scrambled could provide some hints.

It didn’t start off so great, as I kept holding my hands over my eyes whenever Nellie injected herself. But then I remembered that back in 2005, I had no trouble remaining focused during the infamous syringe pit scene in Saw II. So as Nellie made her final injection, I took Alejandro Amenábar’s advice and opened my eyes. And well, I’m still standing, and just a little bit scrambled.

Grade: Enough Eggs to Be Viable

Life Sure is Grave in the World of ‘Lisa Frankenstein’

February 7, 2024

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Frankly, my Lisa, I don’t give a Stein (CREDIT: Michele K. Short / © 2024 FOCUS FEATURES LLC)

Starring: Kathryn Newton, Cole Sprouse, Liza Soberano, Joe Chrest, Carla Gugino

Director: Zelda Williams

Running Time: 101 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Some Violence and Sexuality That Could Easily Have Been R-Rated If the Most Intense Parts Didn’t Happen Off Screen

Release Date: February 9, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: It’s not easy being Lisa Swallows in 1989. For one thing, her mother was recently killed during a home invasion, and she appears to be the only one who’s actually been traumatized by that tragedy. Meanwhile, there are the more quotidian, but no less dramatic, struggles of being a teenage girl. Her dad Dale (Joe Chrest) has remarried a high-strung nightmare named Janet (Carla Gugino), which has forced Lisa to finish her senior year at a new high school. And since she’s an extremely mousy wallflower, she’s either ignored, insulted, or taken advantage of by her classmates. Her stepsister Taffy (Liza Soberano) tries to look out for her, but there’s a vague sense of manipulation beneath the bonhomie. So Lisa spends much of her time at the local grave of a young man (Cole Sprouse) who died a bachelor long ago. And wouldn’t you know it, the power to reanimate the dead is in the air.

What Made an Impression?: Silence and Isolation: One of the most striking things about Lisa Frankenstein is its rather quiet sound mix, to the point that I wondered if there were any technical snafus while I was watching. But things are usually on the up-and-up at the screening room where I caught it, so I’m left to believe that this was in fact a creative choice. It’s at least thematically resonant, as Lisa never quite behaves the way that you would expect someone in her situation to. She’s lost in a suburban nowheresville in which nobody knows quite how to communicate with her, save for the resurrected creature hiding out in her closet. As for Sprouse’s turn as the monster, he’s clearly studied the likes of Boris Karloff and Peter Boyle, as he adapts their grunts and staggering gaits into an improbable heartthrob.
What Stays Buried: When I saw the trailer and read the premise for Lisa Frankenstein, I assumed it was going to be an adorably huggable gothic romance spin on Mary Shelley’s classic tale. But as it turns out, the Creature and Lisa have much more of an appetite for violence than I was expecting. Some whimsy tries to make itself felt, but it proves to be an odd match for Diablo Cody’s decidedly dark screenplay. This movie isn’t for the faint of heart, though I can imagine it being embraced by the latest generation of goths. Director Zelda Williams’ touch feels a little less than sure-handed in her feature debut, but the end result is unique enough that I don’t want to dismiss it entirely. There’s a reason why dark hearts like Lisa’s keep beating on the big screen, and while I’m not sure what her story means, I won’t be surprised if it’s embraced by a group of outcasts who locate some real resonance.

Lisa Frankenstein is Recommended If You Like: Edward Scissorhands and Heathers, especially the parts where people die

Grade: 3 out of 5 Graves

‘Argylle’ is Total Nonsense, But Is It Also a Good Time?

January 31, 2024

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Wait a minute — the cat! (CREDIT: Universal Pictures/Apple Original Films/Marv)

Starring: Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell, Henry Cavill, Bryan Cranston, Catherine O’Hara, Samuel L. Jackson, John Cena, Dua Lipa, Ariana DeBose, Sofia Boutella, Rob Delaney, Richard E. Grant, Chip the Cat

Director: Matthew Vaughn

Running Time: 139 Minutes

Rating: PG-13 for Violence That Makes the Main Character Constantly Wince

Release Date: February 2, 2024 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is a super-duper successful espionage novelist, so much so that some actual spies have started to take notice of her. It turns out that the plot of her books have somehow mirrored the actual activities of an underground spy ring known as The Division. At least that’s the story that a bearded man named Aidan (Sam Rockwell) tells her when he randomly pops up like he’s in a Terminator movie to say that she better come with him if she wants to live. And well, he might be onto something, as there do seem to suddenly be a lot of people with guns and knives in Elly’s vicinity. Meanwhile, she keeps having visions of Argylle (Henry Cavill), the titular hero of her novels who seems to know her better than she knows herself.

What Made an Impression?: We’re in a Spy Movie!: I found it difficult to embrace Argylle, because it just never felt like any of these characters were particularly spy-like. Instead, they felt more like people who were excited to be in a spy movie. Now look, I’ve never met a secret agent (that I know of!), so I can’t say with authority what genuine espionage dialogue truly is. But I’m still a little skeptical that the cloak and dagger set would refer to their adversaries as generically as “the bad guys.” And that seeming lack of authenticity is doubly felt by how antithetical it is to Argylle‘s premise.
Dance For Your Life: In general, I’ve found Matthew Vaughn’s films to be at best only fitfully compelling. But I can’t deny that he knows how to choreograph some marvelously kinetic action sequences, particularly when they marry combat with dance. In 2015’s Kingsman, the standout set piece was a massacre in a church set to “Free Bird,” while Argylle ups the ante with a battle royale on a train soundtracked by Sylvester and Patrick Cowley’s disco hit “Do You Wanna Funk.” Vaughn’s characters might be fighting over nonsense, but these melees are something special.
Stupid Fun or Just Stupid?: In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I won’t reveal why Elly’s novels are so prescient, but I will say that once we do get an explanation, Argylle really kicks into a higher gear. Suffice it to say, the explanation is a classic trope based on presumably bogus science. But as far as hokum goes, it’s enjoyable-enough hokum that can push the plot along in zippy directions. It justifies at least a little of all this silly business.

Argylle is Recommended If You Like: The Kingsman series, Unknown, Hypnotic

Grade: 2.5 out of 5 Gray Cats

‘Miller’s Girl’ Just Wants to Have Huh

January 30, 2024

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CREDIT: Lionsgate/Screenshot

Starring: Jenna Ortega, Martin Freeman, Gideon Adlon, Bashir Salahuddin, Dagmara Domińczyk

Director: Jade Hadley Bartlett

Running Time: 93 Minutes

Rating: R

Release Date: January 26, 2024 (Theaters)

Miller’s Girl is the sort of tawdry movie that probably makes a lot of viewers go, “Why is this coming out in 2024? And why did we ever think this type of premise was okay?” When I ask myself that question and wonder why this sort of thing didn’t bother me in the 90s and early 2000s, I realize: it was because I didn’t watch that stuff back then!

Here’s the deal: Jenna Ortega plays a precocious high school student who gets a little too explicit for her teacher Martin Freeman to handle while working on an assignment that riffs on Henry Miller. Meanwhile, her friend Gideon Adlon flirts with another teacher (Bashir Salahuddin), just for the hell of it, I suppose? Anyway, it’s all mostly rather tame and forgettable (with the exception of some bluntly flowery voiceover).

When I first read the premise, I glossed over the “creative writing” part of “A creative writing assignment,” and I somehow got it in my head that the assignment in question had to do with espionage. I would have much rather lived in that reality.

Grade: It’s Not Miller Time

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