Movie, music and TV reviews by Matt Neal, a Rotten Tomatoes-accredited ABC Radio film critic (also an author, musician, journalist and all-round okay guy).
This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on July 27, 2023.
(PG) ★★★★
Director: Greta Gerwig.
Cast: Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling, America Ferrera, Will Ferrell, Kate McKinnon, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Issa Rae, Michael Cera, Ariana Greenblatt, Rhea Perlman, Helen Mirren.
"Why walk when you can blade, dude?"
As they say in the classics, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Mattel doesn't give a shit about what they say in the classics. It absolutely owns cake and eats cake here.
By that I mean Mattel has somehow managed to get its most iconic toy into a film that both praises and shreds said toy. The movie is an intelligent satire that deals with the very feminism Barbie undermines and the patriarchy the doll upholds, but it's also a daft goof, filled with dance battles and melodrama. It is a giant ad designed to sell toys, while also pointing out how inane and ridiculous it all is. It even lampoons Mattel itself as a gormless money-hungry corporation, while still celebrating the role it played in creating a cultural icon.
How is this possible? The answer is director/writer Greta Gerwig.
The story follows Stereotypical Barbie (Robbie), who lives one perfect day after another in Barbieland, until some un-Barbie-like thoughts begin to creep into her mind. Desperate to continue her idyllic life, she and her acquaintance Ken (Gosling) must travel to The Real World, where they both learn some brutal truths about how things really work.
The appointment of indie darling Gerwig (Lady Bird, Little Women) and her partner-in-crime Noah Baumbach to write Barbie seemed almost akin to asking Wes Anderson to direct a Fast & Furious movie, but it pays off in droves. Within whatever limits Mattel set, they've crafted a script that's a cutting examination of gender roles and societal expectations that's also filled with air-headed charm. The film gets how problematic Barbie has been, and how emblematic it is of deeper problems in society, and that drives the entire show. Gerwig has a limited yet still startling amount of freedom here, and she goes for broke. She's made a Barbie film that somehow appeals to the grown-up angry woman and the optimistic little girl she once was, all at the same time.
That Gerwig manages to balance the hard-hitting feminist themes with an airy, sparkly pinkness is no mean feat. The amazing production design certainly helps. It revels in the fakeness and has a ball apeing the OG toys. Barbieland is a marvel of set construction and dressing, while the wardrobe department has been working overtime. And it make The Real World look all the more drab by comparison, even though it's just, well, real.
None of this precarious juggling of tones would work without having a Barbie that can deal with both the earnest sentimentality and the ditzy goofiness. Thankfully Robbie is more than up to the task. She delivers an iconic performance in an iconic role, perfectly articulating the humour, naivety and emotion required.
Gosling is also in fine form in arguably the tougher role. Ken's place in the film is tricky to balance, and Gosling seems to thrive in making Ken unlikeable. There are no sympathetic male characters here - sorry guys - and Ken is one of the worst, maintaining a level of idiocy throughout that is hilarious, thanks in no small part to Gosling.
The other standout is Ferrera, who is a grounding presence the latter half of the film can revolve around as it almost spins off its axis. Her performance and her character ensure the final act doesn't go completely off the rails, which is helpful because it's the final act where the film struggles. As any gymnast will tell you, it's hard to stick the landing, and Barbie doesn't quite know how to get its slanted plastic feet on the ground. Act three drags on, putting the film in danger of outstaying its welcome.
Ferrell's presence, as Mattel's CEO, is also tricky to handle because he leans fully into the wackiness. This helps prevent the film from making Mattel anything other than bumbling plot drivers, as opposed to out-and-out villains. It's probably a fair assumption Mattel had a say in limiting the evilness of its own portrayal, because the company's role in the movie is key yet somehow feels tangential.
Barbie is funny and whip-smart. Could it hit hard and push further? Absolutely. But that ignores how remarkable it is that this film got made - they made a Barbie movie for grown-ups about feminism and the patriarchy. Let that sink in for a moment. Absolutely no one had that on their bingo card five or ten years ago.
I've seen five of the previous six Mission: Impossible films, and I'm damned if I can remember a single plot element from any of them. All anyone can recall is Tom Cruise's increasingly bonkers stunts, right? As mentioned in my review for M:I - Fallout, the films tend to become known as The One Where Tom Cruise Climbs The Burj Khalifa or The One Where Tom Cruise Hangs On To A Plane During Takeoff etc.
With that in mind, this Mission has one of the better and more memorable plots of the bunch, though it's still highly likely we'll all come to refer to it as The One Where Tom Cruise Rides A Motorbike Off A Cliff.
The plot, for what it's worth, involves a rogue AI called The Entity. Every world government wants to catch it and harness it, but Ethan Hunt (Cruise) knows it can't be contained, and wants to destroy it.
Much like a Bond film, M:I movies are about a couple of key things - the villain and the stunts. If those are top notch, which they typically are, then we start to make sure the plot makes sense, the performances are good, and the movie doesn't outstay its welcome or make any dramatic mis-steps. The formula is established, so usually it's about following the recipe, and maybe adding some extra flavours along the way.
Dead Reckoning Part One ticks every M:I box, often with flair. It's the best one since the original, waaaay back in 1996, blending a strong plot, a solid couple of villains, and some of the best stunts the series has seen. Tom Cruise rides a motorbike of a fucking cliff, for chrissake, but the final sequence involving a runaway train is fantastic.
It's the side players that have been the series' strong suit of late. Rhames and Pegg are always handy to have in your pocket, while Atwell is a stellar addition. Ferguson, sadly, feels underused, having been one of the best things about the past couple of films.
And Cruise, well, he just keeps on cruising. He could do this stuff in his sleep, even at age 60, and obviously ramps up the stunts with each new film to give himself a reason to get up out of the giant bed made of money that he probably sleeps on every night. Ethan Hunt is the apex hero in action cinema - he has no weaknesses beyond his own morality and forthright desire to do good, no matter the cost. He's flawless, which should be boring. Hunt goes against the rules of screenwriting, because he's almost a Marty Stu. The only thing that saves him from this is he sometimes fails, though usually through no fault of his own. In Dead Reckoning Part One, he even saves the day by accident in one incredibly memorable moment that I'm pretty sure some people will hate, but I think is fantastic and hilarious.
The point is that Hunt shouldn't be such a drawcard but he is, and its all due to Cruise. We buy into these films largely because we know it really is Cruise hanging on the side of an airplane or riding a motorbike off a cliff. It's not even about the character anymore. It's about Cruise doing crazy shit.
M:I is so ingrained in its formula now that they can make jokes about it. "He always goes rogue," notes one character, referring to Ethan Hunt. Yes, he does, but if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
triple j airs its Hottest 100 of Like A Versions this weekend. The segment, now 20-ish years old, has brought in a hugely talented array of artists to create more than 850 covers over the years. Some have been incredible, some have been, well, this one feels like satire (seriously, it's a joke, right?).
But what makes a good cover? Let's explore that question while we try to figure out who's going to win this weekend's countdown.
As with previous Hottest 100s, I've looked at a range of factors to explore the likely contenders. This one's a bit different though. Social media vote aggregator 100 Warm Tunas is still a thing, but there seems to be fewer votes ie. less data for it to work with, which means it could be less accurate than usual. ARIA chart appearances are basically non-existent, but appearances in previous countdowns is definitely a thing. It seems like YouTube plays could be key element, and who knows whether the bookies will get it right this time.
All in all, this might be a tough one to predict. But read on....
Note: All stats and odds correct at time of writing.
Also note: I'm using Sportsbet's odds as an indicator, not an endorsement. Remember: you win some, you lose more. What are you really gambling with? Chances are, you're about to lose. What's gambling really costing you? Imagine what you could be buying instead. Don't be a deadshit. Etc, etc.
Also also note: You can listen to the countdown this Saturday (July 15) from midday (AEST) on triple j and Double J.
Why it will win: Stripping Cher's blockbuster of its autotune and dancefloor excesses, DMA's found a startling ballad at the song's heart. The surprise was part of the cover's appeal, along with the nostalgia for the original. Take note of that last point - most of the favourites to poll well are older tunes pre-2005, brimming with nostalgia, with a notable exception being The Wiggles' LAV, in which the nostalgia lies with the band, not the cover. Warm Tunas has this as a strong favourite, and it's only been wrong twice since it began in 2016. The bookies like it too.
Why it won't win: This only placed #6 in its original countdown - two other LAVs have polled higher. And it's so hyped that maybe there will be a strong cohort of voters pushing against it. Probably not, but you never know.
Why it will win: With a tight band around him, Denzel Curry ramped up the not-so-secret ingredient in Rage Against The Machine's music - the anger - for this ball-tearing cover. Sounding more ferocious than even Zack de la Rocha, Curry's spits his own rhymes (from his track Sirens) in place of Tom Morello's guitar solo and in the process set a then-record for the highest placed LAV in a Hottest 100. If any song if going to top Believe, it's this faithfully furious diatribe against the American military industrial complex.
Why it won't win: Warm Tunas and Sportsbet have this as a very clear second. It really does seem like it's DMA's' countdown to lose, and maybe there are people out there that still don't like rap and/or Rage Against The Machine and who didn't vote for this but those people are weird and you shouldn't be friends with them.
Why it will win: This symphonic cover of Blood has grown in stature alongside the ever-rising star of Gang Of Youths. Originally by defunct-before-their-time Aussie indie folk band The Middle East, Gang Of Youths made it sound like a Gang Of Youths song, without losing any of the passion in the original. In fact, with their string section and Dave Le'aupepe's magnetic presence, they turn that passion up to 11. Gang Of Youths have had six songs in the top 10 of the Hottest 100 since 2017 - they're in fine form for these countdowns.
Why it won't win: There are 13 LAVs that finished in a higher position in a Hottest 100 countdown than this one. The bookies don't rate it much either, and YouTube plays are less than half of those for Believe and Bulls On Parade. Plus, The Middle East's original version is much loved and incredible, don't get me wrong, but it's not as universal as many of the other tunes on this shortlist. Yes, it reached #64 in the Hottest 100 of 2009 and has 59 million plays on Spotify, but, for example, Bulls On Parade has 359 million, Cher's Believe has 491 million, and even The Divinyls' I Touch Myself has 79 million.
Why it will win: We're getting deeper and deeper into hypothetical territory here but let's assume for a moment that DMA's' Believe isn't an unbackable favourite and turn our attention to this cheery-yet-straight-faced rendition of The Divinyls' beloved ode to self love. Lime Cordiale give the song a Lime Cordiale flavour, but it's not a million miles from the original - it's an inspired choice for the band because it suits their winking (yes, winking) sunshiny pop sound down to the ground. In terms of previous Hottest 100 placings for LAVs, this is in the top five, and Sportsbet has good odds on this being a top three finish, despite it only being fifth favourite. And keep in mind, Lime Cordiale have a remarkable 16 Hottest 100 entries in the past five countdowns, including eight top 20 finishes. This could be a dark horse.
Why it won't win: Those YouTube view numbers are well below the previously mentioned covers, and the bookies like this as second or third, but not first. Warm Tunas has this clumped in with a big pile of songs that appear on between 14 and 12 per cent of lists. None of this bodes well for this wonderfully cheeky LAV climaxing at #1.
Why it will win: Here it is: the only LAV to ever win a Hottest 100. One of my friends summed up its 2021 victory as exactly what we needed to cap off a shitty year of pandemic-induced depression. It was a win for hope, fun and positive vibes; a warm blanket of nostalgia created by the band that evoked a million childhoods, playing a classic tune (#7 in 2012) by one of the most popular Aussie acts of the past 15 years. It was a match made in heaven. It was the LAV we never knew we needed.
Why it won't win: It was a time and a place, and there's a deep feeling that the novelty of this has worn off somewhat. It will still hit a slice of voters in the feels, but if Warm Tunas is anything to go by, this medley of Elephant and Fruit Salad is slightly past its use-by date.
Why it will win: Ok, so today I discovered that the bass player on the original version of this song by soft rockers Player was Ronn Moss, aka Ridge from long-running US soap opera The Bold & The Beautiful. Mind blown. That aside, this beautiful piece of yacht rock suited Ocean Alley down to the ground, who rendered it in faithfully smooth tones. This is the fourth highest finishing LAV of all time, and it's popularity on YouTube rivals Gang Of Youths' LAV. Ocean Alley have a Hottest 100 victory under their belts, winning in the year they recorded this cover. Who knows - maybe with Confidence out of the running it could pave the way for this cover from the long-haired band from the Northern Beaches.
Why it won't win: A very popular cover, and will do well, but not well enough. Warm Tunas has it outside the top 10, and the bookies have it outside the top five. The original dates back to 1977 - is it that too far back for the (mostly) young voters of triple j?
Why it will win: There's something bloody magical about this cover. The switch from banjo to bass. Yirrŋa Yunupiŋu singing in language. The direct power of the adapted melody. The absolute epic beauty of it all. It probably shouldn't work but it does, and that's the awesome thing about it. Leaving all the numbers and data and evidence aside, King Stingray's version of Coldplay's breakthrough anthem Yellow hits people in the feels. There are others likely to poll high in the countdown that similarly tug at the heartstrings - Sarah Blasko's Life On Mars? and Regina Spektor's Real Love to name but two - but for true overwhelming emotion, this is the one.
Why it won't win: Numbers are cold. They don't care about your feelings. They don't care that this song makes you fucking cry. They don't care that this is a beautiful moment of worlds coming together. They don't care that this is a rare instance of harmonious unity between the oldest continuous living culture on Earth and the culture that sought to wipe it out. Number don't care.
Fuck numbers.
Dumb Things - A.B. Original ft Paul Kelly & Dan Sultan (2016)
Why it will win: It's kinda cheating to get the original artist to join you on your cover, right? Or is it a secret weapon. Briggs and Trials (aka A.B. Original) got the great man himself Paul Kelly to lay down the choruses while they slay the nation, taking PK's bar-room favourite to new polemic heights. Much like Denzel Curry on Bulls On Parade, or The Herd on I Was Only 19, this LAV shows how rap is an instrument, both musical and of social justice.
Why it won't win: There's a solid top 10 finish ahead for Dumb Things, but it would be an unexpected, but not undeserved, win if it made it to #1.
Why it will win: Alex Lahey and her band (hey, there's G Flip!) play it straight down the line for her rendition of the great emo anthem, taking My Chemical Romance's original and covering it like they love the absolute shit out of it. They ape every bell, whistle and groove change with a punk-rock adoration, nailing a highwire performance that feels like it could fall off at any point but never does. Warm Tunas has this as part of a clump of songs appearing in 14 per cent of votes, which puts it within striking distance of fourth place, but I know what a huge sentimental favourite this is for people, and surely that counts for something right?
Why it won't win: The numbers aren't great on this. In fact it's only the 31st highest finishing LAV of all time, though it was the third highest in its year (behind Lime Cordiale and Denzel Curry - what a year for LAV). There's a helluva lot of love for this one, but not enough to get it across the line for #1.
Why it will win: The bookies rate this highly - even higher than Blood and I Touch Myself. Warm Tunas puts in the top five, ahead of Yellow and Welcome To The Black Parade. It's 10 years old and a lot of people still love it. But perhaps the biggest thing working in the favour of this mashup is that it's a surreptitious way to vote for four covers in one, with references to half a dozen other songs thrown into boot. Featuring Frenzal Rhomb's Lindsay MacDougal on guitar, Kira Puru on vocals, and the same cellist from Gang Of Youths' Blood LAV (Hanna Oblikov, for those who are wondering), it's an all-star celebration of Aussie music that's hard to ignore.
Why it won't win: This is a dark horse, but the medley nature that appeals to a lot of people probably turns off just as many who want to just hear a song, not a mashup, goddammit.
Other songs to watch out for (with original Hottest 100 placing in brackets):
I Was Only 19 - The Herd, 2005 (18)
(Lover) You Don't Treat Me No Good - Chet Faker, 2014 (21)
Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again? - Dune Rats, 2022 (23)
Indiana Jones is no more. Or at least so says Harrison Ford and Kathleen Kennedy. Or at least so they say for now. Things may change. Some day, Chris Pratt or someone else will pull on the battered fedora and I'll go and watch the film they make, grumbling all the while before writing a begrudgingly positive review. Probably.
But until that sadly inevitable day arrives, let's mark the end of one of cinema's greatest franchises with a celebratory list. Of course, you know how this list is going to go, but I'm going to write it down anyway.
Every single thing in this film is iconic. The costume, the score, the set pieces, the stunts, the script, the cinematography, the performances, the Harrison Ford. It's hard to fault this unsurpassed highwater for adventure films. Much like how George Lucas took his love of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon and turned it into something new and mindblowing with Star Wars, Lucas and his buddy Steven Spielberg reinvented the pulpy jungle-adventure B movies of the '40s and '50s to make the perfect action movie. Everything works. It's a rollercoaster of perfection, barrelling from one incredible moment to the next. Ford's Jones is a very human hero whose tenacity, ingenuity and dumb luck pulls him out of one scrape after another, and it's a goddamn joy to watch.
2. Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade
The Indiana Jones films are not renowned for their thematic depth, but it's there if you're willing to look. Raiders is ultimately a story about how the quest for power is its own undoing, Temple Of Doom is about control over the less fortunate, and the light that must stand to fight against the darkness within man, but it's Last Crusade that is the deepest and most poignant of the original trilogy. It's a tale of faith and obsession, and about fathers and sons, and all the prickly issues that come with that. In one of the greatest casting moves in history, Sean Connery joined the franchise as Indy's dad, and this would be a far lesser film without him. The film apes Raiders' tone and pace, and almost equals the original in terms of iconic sequences. The young Indy opening, the tank chase, the Grail challenges - they're all part of the heart-stopping fun that makes this a scintillating widescreen adventure.
3. Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom
The dark one. Hearts are removed, kids are tortured, people are set alight, and brains are eaten (those poor monkeys), but these things don't make it a bad film. In fact it's a great film, another rollicking adventure that tries to take the formula of the first and push it further. Even if some of its set pieces push the limits (the inflatable raft drop, the minecart chase, the rope bridge fight), they're still wonderful sequences that have us cheering from the edge of our seats. With its added darkness comes added tension, and Temple Of Doom hits faster and harder than any other film in the franchise.
An 80-year-old Ford plays a 70-year-old Indy in a bold and often bonkers attempt to give the whip-cracking archaeologist the farewell he deserves. Its themes of regret and life passing us by add layers to the adventure, and also feed into the MacGuffin and the somewhat subdued but solid villain (played by Mads Mikkelsen). Waller-Bridge is a fine companion, and Ford gives his best performance of the series. The opening and ending are iconic, but some of what happens in between drags.
5. Indiana Jones & The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
Cate Blanchett is a remarkable actress, one of the greatest of all time, but as soon as she rolls up "chewing those wouble-yoos", it's clear Crystal Skull is going to be a goofy disappointment. From its overlong title (why the everloving fuck isn't it just called Indiana Jones & The Crystal Skull?) to its hair-combing, Tarzan-aping sidekick Mutt, this film is more cheesy homage than genuine sequel. And you know what? I like the "nuking the fridge" sequence, I don't hate the MacGuffin, and even in spite of the goofiness, it's kinda fun in places. But there's a lot to dislike. Ray Winstone's Mac is utterly superfluous, Mutt is a caricature, and the script is one bleeding obvious line after the other. Oh, what might have been.
This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on July 6, 2023.
(M) ★★★
Director: James Mangold.
Cast: Harrison Ford, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Mads Mikkelsen, Antonio Banderas, Toby Jones, Boyd Holbrook, Ethann Isidore, Shaunette Renée Wilson, Thomas Kretschmann.
It turned out that "spelunking" didn't mean what she thought it meant.
For a generation of fans of a certain age, the first three Indiana Jones movies set the benchmark for escapist entertainment. They were, and are, the ultimate adventure films thanks to their classic set-pieces, a rampaging score, and one of cinema's most iconic heroes. In many a young mind, they inspired an interest in everything from archaeology and Biblical historicity to stuntwork and whipcracking.
I land firmly within that generation. I've seen Raiders Of The Lost Ark more times than probably any other film. I've read the books and the comics, played The Fate Of Atlantis, cracked a whip, and dressed as Jones for a fancy dress party. I've even seen Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull three times. For me, any Indiana Jones is better than no Indiana Jones.
Setting this high level of bias aside, I can say confidently that the fifth and final outing of Professor Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, Jr., Ph.D. is solidly good without being great. It fails to reach the lofty heights of the first three films, but nails the tone of the series better than Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull. It's authentically Indiana Jones, even though it's lacking in some departments and gets very weird in its final act.
After an opening sequence set during WWII featuring a CGI de-aged Indiana Jones, the film finds a 70-year-old Indy (played by an 80-year-old Ford) preparing for retirement in 1969. But a visit from his god-daughter Helena Shaw (Waller-Bridge) sets him on the trail of the film's MacGuffin - the Dial of Destiny. The powerful yet broken relic not only sent Helena's father Basil Shaw (Jones) mad, but it's also the target of a former Nazi scientist (Mikkelsen), hellbent on using the dial to correct some of Hitler's mistakes.
Re-watching Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull recently, I was struck by how that film's tone was ever-so-slightly off compared with the previous three Indy adventures. It accidentally erred towards goofy instead of charmingly amusing, its wackiness sucking a little too much of the tension out of proceedings. In Dial Of Destiny, the tone is spot on. The humour has a sincerity that avoids Crystal Skull's wink-at-the-audience silliness. Dial Of Destiny keeps its integrity and its sense of danger close to hand amid the silliness.
This means that even when the film ends up in a very strange place in the final third, we can still get a beautifully heartfelt moment and a hearty laugh out of it. It means that amid the seemingly endless car chases, the gags land and we worry this will be one scrape too many for this surprisingly spritely old man.
Age has certainly wearied Indiana Jones, even if Harrison Ford is in absurdly good shape for an octogenarian. That's a factor in Dial Of Destiny in so many ways, some good, some bad. It adds a certain thematic and emotional richness to the film in places - something not seen so prominently in the franchise outside of Last Crusade. Jones sees the world has passed him by in some moments, which is hard to take for him and the audience. He's as much of a relic as the ones he teaches about or recovers from lost temples. But his senior citizen status does bring its own "ooh, there goes a hip" kind of thinking to some of the action scenes.
Somehow it mostly works. The action set pieces - most notably an opening sequence involving a train full of Nazis and an early horse ride through a New York subway - are good, though a few more with iconic ambition would have been better than yet another car chase. Having very punchable Nazis as the baddies is a great move, Mikkelsen avoids chewing the scenery but brings a studied menace to his role, while Waller-Bridge makes a fantastic companion for Jones.
As for Ford, it's one of his better performances, and easily the most well-rounded piece of acting he's delivered in the franchise. He always made Jones a man who could be hit and be hurt, but a desire to do what's right (mixed with bloody-minded stubbornness) always got him back on his feet. In Dial Of Destiny, Jones has been hit and hurt so much he's slightly broken, and he's angry at the world because of it. He's still bloody-mindedly stubborn and driven by a strong moral compass, but he has also kinda given up. And having nothing left to care about makes him dangerous. Somehow, Ford conveys all that - the rage, the fragility, the danger, the emptiness - and makes Indy more interesting than he's ever been.
Overall it's a bit long (I blame the car chases), some of it feels kinda tepid or lazily plotted, and the ending is going to take some getting used to, but it has its heart and its tone and its fedora in the right place. Is it a fitting end to all Indiana Jones movies? Its final moments are subversively perfect in one sense, while in another sense, they can't match the wit of Raiders' conclusion or the grandeur of Last Crusade's.
But like I said, any Indiana Jones is better than no Indiana Jones. And if this is the end, well, thank you, Indiana Jones. It's been a wild ride, and we've loved every minute of it. Even the bit where you dodged a nuclear blast by hiding in a lead-lined fridge.
This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on June 22, 2023.
(PG) ★★★
Director: Peter Sohn.
Cast: (voices of) Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Ronnie del Carmen, Shila Ommi, Mason Wertheimer, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Catherine O'Hara.
"What makes you think we overwatered and then set fire to the plants?"
Water falls in love with fire. That's the elevator pitch here. Oh, and it's a reflection on the immigrant experience. And it's made by Pixar. How could it miss?
Pixar films are great at being several things at once. Inside Out is about anthropomorphic personifications of feelings go on a twisted journey through the human mind, but it's also about becoming a teenager and leaving childhood behind, plus the power and necessity of all our emotions. The Incredibles is a superhero movie, but it's also about being true to yourself, and what makes everyone special. Finding Nemo & Dory are great adventures, but are also about disability. This combination of deep themes and all-ages entertainment is the secret to Pixar's success.
Elemental is great at juggling its surface love story and its deeper immigrant themes, but, oddly, it only does a passable job at getting all the, ahem, elements to work together across the whole of its runtime. As a result, Elemental is good, not great. Maybe that says more about the "great expectations" that come with each new Pixar film, and maybe I'm wrong - I was wrong about Ratatouille after my first viewing. But Elemental has all the necessary pieces, yet it can't get the puzzle to fit together like you'd hope.
The romantic odd couple here are Ember, the fiery daughter of immigrants, who is destined to take over the family business, and Wade, the wet son of privileged upper class water elements, who works as a council inspector. Wade literally spills into Ember's life and puts Ember's family business at risk of closure, but the pair soon have to work together to find the source of a major water leak that threatens to cause major damage and loss of life in Fire Town.
Firstly: don't think too hard about the physics of Elemental, otherwise it will start doing your head in. Why is water different in its water form to its person form when a Water Person can disappear into the water water? And how come the heat of a fire person... anyway, I need to stop thinking about this, or I'll get a headache.
But, more importantly, its the story that seems to have pieces missing from the equation. A moment where a character professes their desire to see a particular flower as a child seemingly comes out of nowhere, leading to a beautiful but ultimately distracting divergence. And given we don't see a single other example of a Fire Person romantically or even platonically involved with a Water Person, it feels like their relationship doesn't attract as much interest/attention as it could or should. Similarly, a subplot about a leak threatening Fire Town feels underdeveloped - was there a villain removed from the story? And why aren't more people concerned about this leak given it could literally kill thousands of people?
The film really hits its stride when Wade and Ember are forced to work together and their romance can blossom, but getting there is a bit of a struggle. What's consistently good is the world creation (physics questions aside) - the otherness of the Fire People is captured wonderfully, and their experience will no doubt speak volumes to people from migrant backgrounds - but dotted in between are story elements that don't flow as beautifully as a Water Person on a slide.
The characters are great, and the visuals are impressive, even if the cartoonish nature of the Fire and Water People is sometimes jarring against the real-looking objects they interact with. Still, it's a wonderful feat of animation to make everything as stunning as it is. Fire and water are two notoriously difficult elements to animate, but Pixar takes such challenges in its stride these days.
Lewis and Athie give vibrant performances, with Athie somehow making Wade's predilection for bursting into tears believable. There's a strong support cast as usual, and the match of voice-to-character is an under-rated part of Pixar's magic.
Enjoyable and beautiful, Elemental manages to nail its themes and its love story, but doesn't flow or sizzle quite like its fire-water combo suggests it should.
This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on June 8, 2023.
(PG) ★★★★
Director: Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson.
Cast: (voices of) Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Brian Tyree Henry, Luna Lauren Vélez, Jake Johnson, Jason Schwartzman, Issa Rae, Karan Soni, Daniel Kaluuya, Oscar Isaac, Shea Whigham.
Come-As-Your-Favourite-Superhero Day was as predictable as ever.
But with great power, comes great responsibility (phew, got there in the end). After all, there is a rich web of Spidey-tales to honour and be true to, even while weaving a brand new strand. This is both the curse and the beauty of Spider-man storytelling in this day and age. Much like Batman, we are so familiar with the origin stories and raison d'êtres that we don't even need to have them explained, but it means you need to do something different and fresh each time because of that familiarity.
But with great familiarity can come great innovation. Batman and Spider-man are ideal for telling a range of different stories in a range of different styles for this very reason. Want a noirish detective story? Both can work for that. Manga and anime? Go right ahead. Or, as is the case in Across The Spider-Verse, you can use a Spider-man story to explore the very nature of Spider-man stories. No Way Home did a similar thing, digging into what makes Spider-man Spider-man via the multiverse, but Across The Spider-verse goes even more meta. And a little bit crazy. In a good way.
The story again follows Miles Morales (Moore) AKA Spider-Man, 16 months on from his first adventure. It finds him more at home with his powers, but still struggling with his responsibilities. A new villain named Spot (Schwartzman) is giving him grief, he's finding it hard to balance his school/home life with his web-slinging life, and he misses Gwen Stacy (Steinfeld) AKA Ghost-Spider/Spider-Woman.
But when Gwen drops in from the multiverse, Miles finds there are more Spider-people out there than he ever imagined, and their role in the multiverse is more complicated than he ever realised.
Basically, like most sequels, Across The Spider-Verse is about doing "more" of everything. More of the insanely inventive visuals, more Spider-people to explore in relation to the mythos, more gags, more action, more everything. Chaotic, ferociously paced, frenetic and fun, Across The Spider-Verse almost goes too far in this more-is-more approach. Some action sequences only just stay on the right side of being too much, and the blurring of visual styles can be jarring and hard to take in some moments.
But the sequel is also excellent at expanding the themes of the first film. Whereas Into The Spider-Verse was very focused on the perils of teenage life, this one spends a welcome amount of time on the perils of being a parent of a teenager. The nature of what Spider-Man is and what he represents is taken to an exaggerated post-modern level, which actually gives the film a lot of its central tension.
Despite this bigger-is-better approach, the film still works. It's as fun and free as the first, though there's a dark undercurrent that grows as it barrels towards its cliffhanger ending (Beyond The Spider-Verse is due out in March next year). And it never forgets where its heart lies, which is in the teenage chests of its two main heroes. Their respective plights are painted in metaphorically rich colours to match the literal visual splendour going on around them.
Into The Spider-Verse was undoubtedly one of the great superhero movies, and easily one of the most important animated films of the past 20 years. That's a tough act to follow, but Across The Spider-Verse lives up to its predecessor, continuing to spin another vibrant thread in the tangled web of Spidey-stories.
