Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
Turning Red: Directed by Domee Shi. With Rosalie Chiang, Sandra Oh, Ava Morse, Hyein Park. A 13-year-old girl named Meilin turns into a giant red panda whenever she gets too excited. It’s Pixar, so do you need me to tell you that it’s an enjoyable emotional roller-coaster that made me cry a few times? Nah, but I’ll tell you that anyways. The animated is top notch and they’re definitely marketing to a very clear and specific audience, but I’m happy to enjoy it even though I’m not remotely in that cohort. It’s out on Disney+ right now. Buy On Amazon!
Cryptozoo: Directed by Dash Shaw. With Lake Bell, Michael Cera, Alex Karpovsky, Zoe Kazan. Cryptozookeepers try to capture a Baku, a dream-eating hybrid creature of legend, and start wondering if they should display these beasts or keep them hidden and unknown. This is a weird one to review: it’d be super easy to pick apart the animation style and the sheer weirdness of the idea of having a zoo full of cryptoid taken from various parts of the world, which on the face of it seems like something we’d see on a made for TV late night special starring actors...
The King of Staten Island: Directed by Judd Apatow. With Pete Davidson, Bel Powley, Ricky Velez, Lou Wilson. Scott has been a case of arrested development since his firefighter dad died. He spends his days smoking weed and dreaming of being a tattoo artist until events force him to grapple with his grief and take his first steps forward in life. There’s a line in this film that really stuck with me: “I’m only 25 and tryin to figure myself out.” I remember being 25 and thinking that, assuming that it would eventually ‘just happen’. Then 30, then 35, then...
Yesterday: Directed by Danny Boyle. With Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino, Ellise Chappell. A struggling musician realizes he’s the only person on Earth who can remember The Beatles after waking up in an alternate timeline where they never existed. The basic premise is pretty well laid out in the synopsis, but what they don’t mention is that The Beetles aren’t the only missing things from the world that the musician finds himself in. There’s a significant amount of drama involved in his absolute paranoia that this is all an elaborate joke that his friends are playing with him,...
The Birdcage: Directed by Mike Nichols. With Robin Williams, Gene Hackman, Nathan Lane, Dianne Wiest. A gay cabaret owner and his drag queen companion agree to put up a false straight front so that their son can introduce them to his fiancée’s right-wing moralistic parents. One of Robin Williams absolutely best dramatic comedy roles, but Robin isn’t even the best part of this film. The interaction between Nathan Lane and Gene Hackman is absolutely delicious, and right when you think it’s about to get stale, boom, the impossible happens and the movie moves into it’s finale. Has there been a...
Mother/Android: Directed by Mattson Tomlin. With Chloë Grace Moretz, Algee Smith, Raúl Castillo, Linnea Gardner. In a post-apocalyptic world rocked by a violent android uprising, a young pregnant woman and her boyfriend desperately search for safety. It’s sad, it’s depressing, and it’s post-apocalyptic, so not a great outlook for anyone in the film. It’s a great movie though, just not exactly what I was looking for at this point in time. Buy On Amazon!
Wolf Like Me: With Ariel Donoghue, Isla Fisher, Josh Gad, Emma Lung. Gary is an emotional wreck and struggles to provide for his daughter since the death of his wife. Mary has a secret she can’t bring herself to share with anyone. The universe brought these two together for a reason. They’re trying to be coy with the premise here, but the title is pretty damn literal and I’m all about this story about a lady that locks her self away once a month and the man that’s forced into her life of horror. The final episode made me seriously...
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen: Directed by Michael Bay. With Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson. Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers’ war. Buy On Amazon!
Transformers: Dark of the Moon: Directed by Michael Bay. With Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Josh Duhamel, John Turturro. The Autobots learn of a Cybertronian spacecraft hidden on the moon, and race against the Decepticons to reach it and to learn its secrets. Buy On Amazon!
Transformers: Directed by Michael Bay. With Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson. An ancient struggle between two Cybertronian races, the heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons, comes to Earth, with a clue to the ultimate power held by a teenager. I still wish this was a better film, transformers fans really do deserve better than what we got. Sure it’s passable film, and sure it updates some of the things that didn’t age well from the cartoons, but dammit we deserved a VW bug as Bumblebee and not whatever GM nonsense we ended up with. Buy On Amazon!
