Finding Dory (2016) - Movie Review

One of the brightest feathers in Pixar’s cap, 2003’s Finding Nemo is a film that I watched the hell out of as a kid. Hell, it was the first film where I actually took time out to watch the director’s commentary for, and this was all pre-Critic bear in mind. That said, looking back on it, I was rather perplexed at how much I adored this movie… until I watched it again recently for the first time in many years. Wow.

I seriously don’t recall the last time a film made me weep quite this much while watching it. A heart-warming story about family and the forces of nature, one without any real antagonist to it which is a serious rarity for family films, it holds up as one of Pixar’s genuine masterpieces. Naturally, with the studio in the process of making new instalments to some of their most popular works like Toy Story, The Incredibles and Cars (notice how I said “popular”, not “good” because of that last one), they also decided to make a follow-up to Finding Nemo. If this was any other studio but Pixar, I would question this decision; however, after seeing what utter perfection they could cook up for prolonged franchises like Toy Story 3, I have quite a bit of faith that this film could work out. Let’s dive right in and find out.

A Most Violent Year (2015) - Movie Review

Organised crime flicks were probably among the easiest for audiences to latch onto when they first introduced. I say this because, when you really think about it, they’re only a slight exaggeration of regular business dealings in the first place. The further up the chain of command you get for a given enterprise, the more cut-throat the tactics and goals get. If you’re just a small upstart shop that sells fresh coffee, the only thing on your mind is being able to compete with the legions of Starbucks in the same area. If you’re Starbucks, your goal is to not only to compete with competitors but to also drive them out of business if possible. Really, the only difference between the two is that Starbucks isn’t likely to send hired goons to rough up the opposition. Well, maybe Apple does that, but it hasn’t been made "officially" known yet. At any rate, shift that paradigm to something that is a little more essential than your daily brew or the newest iPhone; like, say, heating oil for homes during a particularly cold winter in New York City. With this backdrop, we have today’s crime drama.