Lightyear (2022) - Movie Review

On the surface, the idea behind this particular Pixar film makes a lot of sense. It’s an origin story for Buzz Lightyear, not the toy, but the film and TV character that the toy was based on in-universe. Toy Story 2 did the same thing with Woody and the Woody’s Roundup show, and Disney at large has been doing a lot of postmodern media exercises over the last several years; if nothing else, this should be more interesting than just the standard live-action remake. And yeah, it is interesting… but not in the way they intended.

Let Him Go (2020) - Movie Review

Kevin Costner and Diane Lane play a husband-and-wife who live on a ranch in rural Americana. Let’s see how far I get in this review before I start bringing up how crap it was last time this happened on film… dammit. Okay, after Costner genuinely blew me away in Molly’s Game, I’m making it a point to stop completely disregarding the man’s abilities, and even in objectively bad productions like Serenity, Lane still manages to deliver. And to their credit, they are the main anchors that keep the story of this film together… but even that comes with some drawbacks.

An American Pickle (2020) - Movie Review

 

I’ve made it no secret that I am a serious fanboy of Point Grey Pictures, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg’s production studio. I await every new release from them with bated breath, and every time I expect the bottom to fall out from their enviable track record over the 2010s… well, between The Interview and Game Over, Man!, it hasn’t been spotless but it has kept me entertained for a very long time by now. Their latest is something of a torch-passing moment for solo debut director Brandon Trost, who worked as DOP on some of PG’s bigger successes like The Night Before and The Disaster Artist. And honestly, even removing my own biases from the equation, this is one hell of an opening sprint.