A fable that insists it isn't one. Self-possessed and convinced of its charms, but I suppose I'm not telling you anything you don't know. This is your deal, or it isn't, and you knew by the time it said "Wes Ander..." so what are we doing here exactly.
For myself, I found it walked that tightrope of "quirky" into "overbearing" quite easily. Practical effects are densely packed here, and performances are a little same-same, which is understandable since everyone is…
Did you hear that this isn't very good? Well you heard right. What begins in a heady high-concept setting turns into a fairly low-stakes story about dads and daughters and (stunningly) American immigration. None of which is objectionable, necessarily, except it's all kind of "who-cares, whatever" stakes-wise.
The elements, you see, stand in for different races. It seems weird to frame up this mild-mannered diversity-and-inclusion plot by granting the one point that racists believe unfailingly: that different ethnic backgrounds are…
My wife told me this was a classic, but then confessed that she "probably hadn't seen it all the way through" which is annoying because she's been saying "I want my two dollars" to me for 22 years.
This is a pretty insubstantial teen comedy, fairly gentle compared to other genre films. John Cusack is plenty cute and charming, and his romantic interest steals a few scenes, but everyone else ranges from "unpleasant" to "abhorrent" and so it's unfortunate that…
This, for me, was a frustrating lesson in admiring a film without really liking it. There are some hugely fascinating ideas in the movie, but they don't do nearly enough to offset how bored and insulted I felt during the rest of the runtime. There are, likewise, a couple of really dazzling setpieces, but I had difficulty reconciling that with some other awfully cheap-looking aesthetic touches. This film is going for something really ambitious, but the end result is sort…
