MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: STRANGE WORLD (2022)

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RECOMMENDED - Meaning Strongly Recommended. A film that's good enough or historically important enough to demand viewing. WARNING: A few real stinkers are important enough to rate this label. And, on the other hand, lots of pretty good or pretty valuable films, don't quite measure up to our RECOMMENDED level. (See also UNIQUE, below.)

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(Hint: most of the posters will enlarge if you click on them.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT - sort of like those EAT THIS, NOT THAT diet books only with film instead of food as the topic. Sometimes, the substitute pick isn't the obvious 'better' choice, but one of those 'flawed-but-interesting' films that often get left behind.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID - some easy to miss element worth noting.

SILENT FILM - hey, figure it out (LOL)

. . . and DOUBLE-BILL - a suggested second feature.

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Like just about everyone with an interest in the movies, I'm watching more films on DVD and going out to movie houses a lot less. Convenience trumps the better experience.
Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

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Friday, March 31, 2023

STRANGE WORLD (2022)

Coming so soon after best-in-years animated releases from Disney & Pixar (Luca; Encanto*) makes this ham-fisted fossil-fuel allegory look even worse than it is . . . and it’s already plenty bad. Rightly rejected at the box-office, its crude Gaia Whole Earth philosophy hiding under two generations of Father/Son misunderstandings (Dennis Quaid to Jake Gyllenhaal to Jaboukie Young-White); female empowerment role models; story & stylistic nods at RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (note titles & ‘wipes’ between scenes) and (God help us) AVATAR story arcs & æsthetics. Even the color palette (pure Pepto-Bismol) and character design (potato noses on all the guys), if not deal breakers, as executed an insulting botch. The main story a Fix-It trip to the other side of their dying planet (where they find Granddad, missing since the prologue) at least brings on the film’s one technical treat, some ethereal red pterodactyls. But elsewhere, the stink of focus group-think fills in inclusive boxes (interracial marriage; gay son; parallel generation gaps) and retro analogue devices for home (vacuum tube radio; vinyl LPs played on a Victrola) and war (Gramps using Napalm flame-throwers on those pesky aliens - who came up with that one?). It still might have played, but nothing in here feels organic; not even the vegetables.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: If you thought JY-W would only be half as annoying heard but not seen, you’ve got another think coming. And poor Dennis Quaid, whose nekkid tuchus was a highlight of many a rom-com back in the ‘80s, finds his animated self given a signature stance scratching his behind next to Gyllenhaal at something like four times the width.

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK/LINK: *As mentioned, 2021 animated winners LUCA and ENCANTO. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/07/luca-2021.html https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2021/12/encanto-2021.html

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ERNST LUBITSCH

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Friday, March 31, 2023

STRANGE WORLD (2022)

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