It turns out even the weakest Toy Story film, two films after the franchise came to a natural conclusion, is still pretty good. More of a Jessie (Joan Cusack) and Bonnie (Scarlett Spears) movie than a Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) film, the story focuses an imaginative put lonely Bonnie struggling to make friends whose life is changed by the introduction of a new Lilypad (Greta Lee) tablet which draws her away from her toys.
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“Houston, we have a problem.”
Re-released (for the first time in IMAX) to celebrate the film’s 30th Anniversary, director Ron Howard‘s 1995 film based on the real events surrounding the flight of NASA’s Apollo 13 is arguably his best (I’d put it neck-and-neck with the underrated Frost/Nixon.) Casting Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, and Kevin Bacon as the three astronauts whose mission to the moon goes horribly wrong and Gary Sinise, Ed Harris, and Chris Ellis as those in Mission Control who help bring them home, Apollo 13 is a tense drama where knowing beforehand the ending somehow (despite all logic) doesn’t hurt it’s climactic final act.
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Re-released in theaters for the film’s 30th Anniversary, Toy Story was never the quintessential film for me that is is for some. While I certainly understand its importance to the company, and thoroughly enjoy the film, the animation is still rough in a couple places (most notably in the human characters) and it lacks the emotional impact to me that both Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3 deliver. That said, it’s still a damn fine movie taking us into a world of what happens to a child’s toys once they leave the room.
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You know going into a Wes Anderson film it will look great, and in that aspect The Phoenician Scheme doesn’t disappoint. Incredibly designed sets and styles match a wacky tale of a businessman Zsa-zsa Korda (Benicio Del Toro) who is of note for two reasons. First, under attack from a shadowy group (which may or may not be tied to the government?) crippling his business by inflating the cost of materials vital to the job’s completion, Korda is attempting to salvage the biggest deal of his career. And second, everyone wants him dead, so much so that unexpected plane crashes due to bombs smuggled onboard his plane are a common occurrence.
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Writer/director Wes Anderson leans into his quirks and fancies in this 1950s live television production of a play set in the fictional town of Asteroid City. We learn very little about the actors themselves. While most of the events take place in the play itself, characters occasionally break the fourth wall revealing themselves to be the production’s actors and occasionally narration will stop to explain information about the play’s writer Conrad Earp (Edward Norton).
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