Delayed Reaction: Crip Camp

Premise: A documentary about a camp where many key figures in the disabled rights movement went as teens.

 

I don't have to write terms papers anymore, and I'm very happy about that. I had a problem familiar to many of us when writing them. I'd find one or two really excellent quotes to back what I thought was a really great idea. I'd start planning the paper and realize I needed a couple more quotes to fill the multi-page report. Then I'd search and search and search the texts, unable to find anything else that really fit my point, so I'd bend some other quotes unconvincingly to finish the paper even though they really didn't work, resulting in a paper that starts great and on point before trailing off and losing track. I got flashbacks of this while watching Crip Camp.

 

The idea of the doc is really great. This camp for teens with disabilities located on the outskirts of New York was a breeding ground for many of the biggest figures in the disabled rights movement. Even better, there was a pretty sizable amount of archival footage of the place from the 1970s. This checks a lot of boxes for documentaries I like: real footage I haven't seen before, a topic I'm unfamiliar with, and interesting characters. The problem is the "Crip Camp" premise only goes so far. The first half of the movie that's actually about the camp is pretty great. They have loads of footage and get a lot of interviews. I had no complaints about that part. The second half is good too. It's all about the movement to get the ADA passed, and more importantly, paid attention to by the government. It's a nice inspiring story about an equal rights movement that gets the gypsy Holocaust billing behind behind black and female rights in that era. The two halves of the movie struggle to connect though. Not that many of the leaders of the disabled rights movement came from that camp. There are some token mentions about how there was always a tight knit group of people from that camp during key moments and meetings, but the movie never really follows through with the idea that from this camp started a movement. It sort of feels more like how a lot of sport journalists happened to graduate from Northwestern. If there was no Northwestern, there'd still be sports journalism, only a decent portion of the names would be different. There's nothing inherent about sports journalism that points to the development of the medium.

 

I would've preferred just watching a documentary about the Disabled Rights movement that mentioned "Oh, and there was this camp" that they then talk about for 15 minutes. I get the reasoning for hos this movie is. "Crip Camp" is a great title. It comes out swinging. It's not the right title for this movie and led me to thinking it was a different movie than it was. Still a good movie.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Godmothered

Premise: A fairy godmother in training arrives about 3 decades too late for her "princess", living in Boston.

 

It's impossible to discuss Godmothered without bringing up Enchanted. Godmothered is the same basic idea as Enchanted: throw a fairy tale character into the real world. The only difference that it's the fairy god mother who is causing a stir around town rather than the princess this time. Even the casting basically demands a comparison. Enchanted stars Amy Adams. Who does Godmothered get to play the "princess"? Isla Fisher, who spent years getting confused with Amy Adams*. And, this comparison is an unfortunate one. Simply put: Enchanted is good. Godmothered is less good.

 

*So much so, that in a lovely touch, Nocturnal Animals cast Fisher to play a novelized version of Adams' character.

 

There are a few reasons for this; many out of Godmothered's control. The first is that the idea was fresher in 2007. For a couple decades now, Disney has worked tirelessly to shake their dated princess image. It seems like every movie tries to find a way to upend the classic princess story with a diverse casting choice or a twist on an element like trust love's kiss. By 2020, it's become a stale idea to point out how stodgy the Cinderella model is. Second, Godmothered was made on a very different scale. To my knowledge, it was always intended as a Disney+ release. I doubt it got anywhere close to the $85 million budget that Enchanted got. The star wattage of the cast is well below Enchanted's. It's become very clear that "Disney+ original" means a level above a Disney Channel movie and a level below a theatrical release in terms of effort. About three cringe jokes into June Squibb's opening narration, I realized I wasn't about to get Disney's A-game.

 

That's not to say I hated Godmothered. Pretty quickly, I adjusted my expectations for it, and it met the new ones nicely. It's a cute movie. I think Jillian Bell is the right casting for the wrong movie. She's best used comedically when she's allowed to be a little nasty. Even something as earnest as Brittany Runs a Marathon leans into the fact that her best delivery is a little mean. She gets the flustered parts of her Godmothered role right, but she doesn't really work as an unaware idealist. They did her no favors giving her this character, which isn't that adjusted for her. Isla Fisher works a little better. She's allowed to be grumpy and disillusioned, which she can play. The problem with her is that no one has figured out how to make Isla Fisher not look like Isla Fisher. It's hard to feel that bad about her situation when she's stunning, gainfully employed with great kids, and has a strong support system. I get that the agreement in most movies is that we're supposed to pretend that everyone in them isn't gorgeous, but it's hard to get that invested when Jillian Bell's entire role as a magical fairy godmother boils down to telling Fisher to ask that coworker out and encourage her shy daughter a little more. Does she really need magical intervention for that?

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: His House

Premise: South Sudanese refugees in London are haunted in their new house by something that followed them from Africa.

 

Overall, I like a lot about this movie. I haven't seen a refugee horror story before, which is odd, because it's a pretty perfect idea in hindsight. I mean, the story of being a refugee is basically a horror movie even before you throw anything supernatural into it. Tying it into survivor's guilt is even better. It's a nice confined movie. I love some claustrophobic horror. Put a couple people in a room and watch them slowly go insane. What could be better?

 

The twist of the movie is solid, although I don't think the movie really played fair. It's not a twist we could really figure out. The characters are pretty internalized, and their main conflict seems to be about whether to adapt to British culture or not. The idea that they stole the girl in order to be saved comes out of nowhere. That really is the main problem I did have with the movie: it obscures too much along the way in order to conceal that extra twist of the knife at the end. I prefer when the focus is more on the build than the reveal.

 

Pretty much everything else works splendidly though. I really liked Sope Dirisu and Wunmi Mosaku in the lead roles. The small horrors of the refugee experience, like getting lost in a bad neighborhood, add nice tension throughout. The monsters in the wall help too. I like that for much of the movie, it's hard to say how much of this is in their heads. As a Sundance movie, it does the thing that it's supposed to do: make me curious about what the filmmaker (Remi Weekes) will do next.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey

Premise: After his book of ingenious designs was stolen by his apprentice, an aging and nearly bankrupt toymaker makes one last attempt at success with the help of his granddaughter.

 

The easiest way to think of this movie is calling it The Greatest Toyman. It's a musical about the greatest person at his craft rediscovering the joy of what he does as well as the importance of his family. Similar to The Greatest Showman as well is that it is a musical that everyone put a lot of effort into that doesn't entirely work.

 

I'd rather start with the good though. I love the idea of a Christmas movie with a black cast that's really is just a Christmas movie. No one tries to shoehorn deeper messages into it. No one is trying to reference back to the horrors of slavery. It's generally my opinion that Christmas movies are allowed to ignore all the modern rules of storytelling and be abashedly optimistic. Make them as silly and unrealistic as you want. So, this magical world of Jingle Jangle that's fresh out of a snow globe fits right in with the rest of the genre. The cast is great. I didn't realize Forest Whitaker could sing. Keegan-Michael Key relishes a villain role like this. That dude is great at performing like he's reading a book to a group of enthralled 1st graders. Young Madalene Mills has some pipes on her and holds her own against the grown-up performers. The music and productions around each number are lively throughout. In a world where Netflix wasn't releasing so much product weekly to render everything disposable, I could've easily seen this turning into a Holiday classic for some people*.

 

*And I do just mean "some people". That's not coded language for "This is a black movie". This really is a Christmas movie to be enjoyed by anyone.

 

The one big drawback about the movie is that the songs weren't that memorable. Days later, there weren't any that I was still trying to get out of my head. The lyrics and melodies weren't memorable. A lot of effort went into making sure the performances were showstoppers, but the songs couldn't justify the effort. I'm sure some musical historians can find a counter-point here, but musical films don't succeed unless the music is the best thing about them.

 

So yeah. Jingle Jangle gets virtually everything right. The cast is great. They all sing pretty well and come ready to play. The production design and costuming are great, like a cartoonish Christmas Carol. The staging of the dance sequences is big and impressive. The story hits the right tone of ebullience with the slightest hint of sadness. It's just missing the key element. None of the songs are bangers or even all that memorable.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Clouds

Premise: The story of teenager Zach Sobiech, who wrote the hit song "Clouds" shortly before dying of cancer.

 

This movie has a bit of a shroud of invincibility on it since it's based on the true story of a kid who died of cancer. That aspect alone means an opinion like "It's a good thing that Zach Sobiech has already passed, because this would kill him" is immediately off the table. While I didn't hate the movie, I am going to express some frustration similar to Dr. Greg House's when one of his patients was a "cancer kid".

 

I actually watched most of this movie forgetting that this was based on a true story. Literally, in the scenes when they are recording "Clouds" I was thinking "That sounds like a real song I could hear on the radio. Good job, music guy for this movie". It finally dawned on me that it was a true story, and I realized all the framing of my thoughts had to be a little different.

 

I think this movie is everything it means to be. It's a teen-skewing tearjerker with shades of carpe diem. Fin Argus in the lead role is a charming and handsome Disney Channel-esque leading man. Sabrina Carpenter slums it a bit in a best friend role. They and Madison Iseman make a really awkward live triangle. Neve Campbell and Tom Everett Scott as the parents are there to make me feel old. It even has Lil Rel Howery because someone on the movie realized they needed someone who could bring some levity in the cast. The story is a familiar one of a sick teen who won't let his disease slow him down. I appreciate the message of the movie a lot. It bothers me a little that it wasn't until the end credits with actual footage of Zach Sobiech that the room got a little dusty for me. You'd think the parents finding his college letter or the crowd singing his song back to him would've broke me, but nope.

 

My big issue with the movie is that hagiographies are boring. This is essentially a movie about a kid who everyone loves, has multiple girls in love with him, and grows a luscious head of hair back after going off chemo. He goes viral and inks a record deal before passing away after a magical final performance. It's just...boring. Which, is maybe just a way of saying it's not for me. I'm not sure that's there's a "fix" needed. A movie about a mopey kid who no one really likes and gets a token record deal because of the publicity of his cancer isn't a movie that Disney+ wants*. It's also not like they can rewrite history, since I assume this had to be made with the family's blessing. Like, it's dumb to have the best friend and love interest be different characters. It would've been dramatically more interesting if he died before getting to do the show at the Metropolitan and that became the impetus for Sabrina Carpenter to get over her stage fright. Obviously, that all strays too far from what really happened. So, yeah, my complaint is that this is a true story and that I wanted the cancer kid to be sadder. I'm clearly the bad guy in this story.

 

*It would make an interesting Sundance movie though. Hint hint.

 

Final Note: I've loved Jason Mraz since "The Remedy". I realize he's not the coolest musical act to get for this movie, but I was all for it.

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: The Outpost

Premise: A group of soldiers at a remote, poorly located outpost in Afghanistan attempt to survive a Taliban ambush from all sides with overwhelming numbers.

 

A good last stand is one of the most immediately enthralling premises as far as I'm concerned. The Battle of Thermopylae has long been my favorite historical battle (although the stylized depiction in 300 didn't do a lot for me). We still remember the Alamo and Custer's Last Stand. Rio Bravo is probably my favorite Western. The Two Towers with the Battle of Helms Deep is my favorite of the Lord of the Rings movies. Black Hawk Down is pretty great. Hell, I even liked Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand. A last stand is an immediately compelling idea and even bleeds into another subgenre I love: putting a bunch of people in a small place and seeing how they bounce off one another. Honestly, the question wasn't if I'd like The Outpost but how much.

 

The answer is "a little less than I thought while still liking it". Once the bullets start flying, the movie is great. And the battle is almost the entire second hour of the movie. The movie does a great job capturing the chaos. The effects and explosions are great. The chaos is wonderful, and I regret not watching this on my big TV (since a theater was never really an option). It hits all the beats I needed it to. Earlier in the movie, I loved the shot when someone arrives at the camp and realizes they are surrounded by mountains on every side. It really is a bewilderingly bad strategic location.

 

I do think the first half of the movie suffers some from trying to do right by the troops more than by the screenplay. It all feels very authentic to what life was like there and respectful to all the soldiers, fallen or living, who fought and died there. But the characters aren't that engaging. They were all pretty generic. Perhaps that's a reflection of the actors hired for the movie. Looking back on Black Hawk Down, I suspect those characters would be pretty anonymous too if every one of them weren't actors who were or would be recognizable names*. Meanwhile, the only actor in The Outpost I could pick out of a lineup dies 20 minutes in. Regardless, once the battle came around, most of the soldiers were interchangeable G.I. Joes to me. Also, a director with either a lighter or heavier touch would've been nice. Like, could you imagine what Kathryn Bigelow would've done with an outpost where at all times every day you are likely to be dodging sniper fire from above? Or, give this to someone who plays with explosives as gleefully as a Michael Bay or Peter Berg? This movie is fine, but it does feel a bit like they got the B-Team to make it, and none of them did anything to exceed my expectations.

 

*Seriously, check out that cast list again.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Trolls World Tour

Premise: The Rock Trolls try to take over all other musical Troll kingdoms.

 

Talk about a movie I'd rather see in live action. Anna Kendrick. Justin Timberlake. Rachel Bloom. Kelly Clarkson. Sam Rockwell. Mary J. Blige. Kenan Thompson. This is a stacked cast offering voice performances (not to be confused with a stacked cast of voice actors). I think I'd even be good with a version of this shot with the Cats technology. Then again, I probably don't need those nightmares.

 

I like how virtually every 2020 movie has a story behind its release. Due to theater closures, everything was either bumped, released elsewhere, or tanked at the box office. Trolls World Tour was the great VOD hope, earning $100 million through digital rentals. I'm not sure how that will get noted in the ledger years from now, but it sure is interesting to think about in comparison to the Disney+ Mulan release or the Wonder Woman: 1984 HBOMax release.

I don't remember the first Trolls at all. I mean, there were trolls, and singing, and Anna Kendrick and Justin Timblerlake. That's it though. Thankfully, it's a kid’s movie series, so World Tour caught me back up pretty quickly.

 

I like the idea of the different troll music kingdoms and the loose mythology of the strings. I'd love to see the inevitable term paper written about what genres the kingdoms actually should've been to encapsulate all the shades of music. There must be college students as insane and bored as me out there. World Tour certainly gets lost in its own mapping pretty quickly, and I like the idea that the map they were using is out of date. I imagine tracking the troll kingdoms is like looking at maps on 19th century Europe. Remember the Ottoman Empire? Is that the troll equivalent of rockabilly? I'd certainly love to hear the screenwriter's deeper thoughts on the idea of Pop music attempting to eat up the other genres and how Rock was chosen as the form to attack all the others. The answer from the people who came up with this is probably "I don't know. We just know more Rock songs", but I like to imagine someone had to go really in depth in preparation for this.

 

This movie is...fine. The music is safe and ok. I can't complain about the collection of talent assembled, although I do have some qualms with Kelly Clarkson being used for country. There are enough dumb jokes to keep me entertained. I didn't hate it, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it. Definitely don't watch it if your brain is like mine and can't help from dissecting the mythology the movie creates. Why does Funk get its own kingdom, yet soul, blues, and jazz don't!?

 

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Holidate

Premise: Two attractive 20-somethings agree to be each other's dates for holiday events in order to escape the pressures of being alone on those days.

 

Here's the important thing to remember. Holidate is a Hallmark Christmas movie with swearing. As long as you keep that in mind, it's a pretty fun movie. Emma Roberts stays in her sweet spot: less wholesome than her early family movies but not as toxic as Chanel in Scream Queens. Basically, she's a nice person who's a little cynical. Her and Luke Bracey are the right level of attractive for each other. The premise of the movie is simple and obvious. Even as the movie tries to be self-aware with a speech about how RomComs are so predictable, the movie ends up being completely predictable. I enjoyed many of the exaggerated supporting performances. Kristin Chenoweth clearly had the most fun, and good for her. I also enjoyed uptight Cynthy Wu, Manish Dayal as the token romantic rival, and Alex Moffat stepping in for a couple scenes like he was workshopping an SNL dad character. And really, I liked the swearing. There was a certain glee to it in this movie: like they were getting away with making cum jokes in a Holiday RomCom. It even has some children swearing, which makes anything at least a B+ in my book.

 

The movie is obviously contrived. Despite its genre self-awareness it isn't particularly clever, which is a bummer. It's sort of like if a poet comes up to you and says "I know all the rules or poetry. I'm very educated in all the structures and patterns of poetry, and I find them tiresome." then the poet goes and writes a 10-line poem of rhyming couplets, you'd be a little disappointed. Then again, would I really want the RomCom where they don't fall in love?

 

Honestly, my actual issue with the movie is that Luke Bracey just isn't that interesting for this. He's a handsome romantic lead, but he can't do much with the comedy. Emma Roberts ends up running in circles around him whenever it gets to a Com part of the RomCom. Given his filmography, I don't think this is a fluke. I imagine the version of this with, frankly, any of the guys from Everybody Wants Some!! (Blake Jenner, Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell, Tyler Hoechlin) and it's immediately more appealing.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Run

Premise: A paraplegic girl being home schooled suspects her mother may be up to something nefarious.

 

The headline for this movie is that it's the first Hollywood moving starring a wheelchair user since the 1940s, which is both surprising and predictable. There have been, what, 50,000 movies in the last 80 years. Statistically, you'd think someone would've thought to hire an actual wheelchair user in a movie with that many attempts. Then again, it's super easy to cast a known actor who can just pretend to use a wheel chair. Overall though, the fact that Kiera Allen is actually wheel-chair bound doesn't really matter for the movie. I mean, it helps with authenticity, but I suspect most people watching the movie will just assume she doesn't actually have problems walking. Good casting regardless.

 

So, let's get to the movie itself. Run is Aneesh Chaganty's follow up to 2018's Searching, which was my favorite movie that year. He trades off the confines of a story told entirely from a computer screen to the restraints of a girl with a lack of mobility. I appreciate his attraction to a good challenge. It's a fairly small and straightforward story. Chloe (Kiera Allen) is a high school student with a number of health problems. Her mother (Sarah Paulson) homeschools her and takes care of her. But she starts to realize her mother might actually be causing her harm rather than trying to help her. While I'm not here to spoil the movie, I will say it is exactly about what you are thinking. I don't even think the movie aims to hide it.

 

It's a shame that Sarah Paulson plays psychos so well, because she seems like a lovely woman in real life. Run has her very much playing to her strengths though. Allen is a newcomer to movies and acquits herself well in her first film role. Chaganty is rapidly becoming one of my favorite filmmakers for showing someone figuring things out. Both John Cho in Searching and Allen in this spend much of their movies with no screen partners, quietly figuring things out, and it's exciting in both movies. I'm actually a little sad that Allen doesn't get to share screen time with anyone other than Paulson for 95% of the movie, because her other interactions with people are pretty fun. I love the scene of her cutting in line in the pharmacy.

 

I enjoy how the movie resets the stakes for the situation. The fact the Allen can't walk makes many acts more harrowing, and the movie does a great job showing that. For example, after she's climbs across her roof to get out of her room, it's so deflating to realize her mom also broke the wheelchair lift on the stairs.

 

I don't want to overpraise the movie. A lot of it doesn't really track. I'm not sure I believe that it took 17 years for Allen to get curious enough to question her mother's motivations. I think her mother is too sloppy to believe she pulls off this ruse for so long. Perhaps it really is easier to kidnap, poison, and raise a child than I think it is. I'll note this as a parenting lesson for the future.

 

Verdict: Weakly Recommend

Delayed Reaction: Hillbilly Elegy

Premise: A young man attending Yale law school attempts to interview for a job and prevent the problems from his poor life growing up from getting in the way.

 

I missed the wave of popularity of this book back in 2016. Apparently, it was brought into the greater discussion of "Trump's America" as a sort of roadmap to understand his appeal. I'm going to mostly avoid that kind of angle or comparison though, since I don't really get it or care.

 

This is a bad movie. It's not a badly made movie. Ron Howard directed it and his ability to make something watchable is almost unconscious at this point. I'm more mixed on the acting in the movie, but no one embarrasses themselves in this (OK, maybe Amy Adams). Even the writing on a structural level kind of works, moving between the two timelines. No, Hillbilly Elegy is a bad movie because I really don't know what the point of it is.

 

It's based on a memoir by J.D. Vance and tells the story of how he went from a childhood filled with poverty and drugs to being in Yale Law School. Vance comes from "Hillbilly royalty" in Kentucky, although he lives in more of an Ohio factory town. (So, is he really a hillybilly?) His mom is a drug addict with a temper. His grandmother is fiery as well but in more of a chaotic good way. Anyway, as a kid, we see Vance get into all sorts of trouble and endure hardships before his grandmother finally gets him on track. In the future portion, Vance is barely making ends meet at Yale, constantly worried that he'll use the wrong fork at social gatherings. He gets pulled away back home because his mom has another OD, and he has to choose between staying home to get his mom more help or returning to Yale for an important interview.

 

I just plain don't care about Vance's journey though. Not on a philosophical level. I don't care on a cinematic level. I think it's supposed to be an inspirational story about overcoming the hardships in your life. Or maybe it's supposed to be about remembering where you came from. Either way, I don't buy it. Most of Vance's childhood is him getting high and getting into trouble while occasionally asking to watch C-SPAN in hilarious attempts to show "See, he's actually really smart". Then it skips over when he joins the Marines then goes to Ohio State for undergrad. That is a real disservice to his story, because where we leave off with him as a kid gives no indication of how he actually got to Yale. Sure, there's a little montage of him doing more chores and starting to get better grades, but that's about it. So ironically, his true story about overcoming hardship ends up in the movie looking like another story of a white guy who got to make mistakes every step of the way and still make it to the Ivy League.

 

I found myself thinking about Malcolm in the Middle a lot while watching this. It's a similar kind of story about a poor or working-class kid who overcomes his situation. The key difference is that that show never looked down on the family the way Hillbilly Elegy looks down on everyone in Vance's life. It's a patronizing movie. Like the insistence that Vance's mother was actually really smart. It's a lot of telling and no showing that in the movie. In another Amy Adams movie about "refined city folk" going home, Junebug, I talk about the inherent problem of movies about people returning to their hometowns. It's really hard to make a movie like this that isn't gawking, which is why they don't work.

 

There wasn't much to like about this movie. I'll be surprised if it really catches on with any major audience. The acting is too exaggerated. Too much is unintentionally funny (the kid playing young Vance has no idea how to bump into things in a believable way). I don't get the point of the story or like the main character very much. Coming away from the movie, I have no idea why anyone involved wanted to make this.

 

Verdict: Strongly Don't Recommend