post

Off-Target, Annoying ‘NEXT GOAL WINS’ Misses Wide 

by Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

How far the once bright star of Taika Waititi has fallen. Just a few years ago, Waititi was amongst the freshest new voices in the industry, having cut his teeth with heartfelt and genuinely endearing comedies like Boy and Hunt for the Wilderpeople, as well as the sleeper vampire-comedy banger What We Do in the Shadows. His pivot to more commercial enterprises saw him direct a Marvel fan favorite in Thor: Ragnarok and earn a number of Oscar nominees for his Nazi satire Jojo Rabbit. His last few projects have been…less appealing. His return to the MCU with the fourth Thor film, Love and Thunder, was a true misfire, an early indication that the once-never-miss studio was on truly shaky ground, and his latest film, a half baked underdog sports drama once thought to have awards considerations, Next Goal Wins, has garnered the New Zealand native the worst reviews of his career.  Read More

post

Waititi’s ‘THOR: LOVE AND THUNDER’ As Aimless, Superfluous As The MCU’s Phase 4 Writ Large 

by Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Kill the Gods

It’s probably safe to define Thor: Love and Thunder, the fourth film in the main Thor series and eighth total appearance by Chris Hemsworth as the titular character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, by what it is not. It is not as good as its predecessor Ragnarok. Going a step further, I’d wager to say that it’s likely the worst of the Thor-central flicks – the often maligned Thor: The Dark World included. It’s not well constructed; the story is jumbled and meandering, the tone is all over the place, the character arcs are fairly uninvolving and flat. It’s not as funny as it thinks it is; the jokes mustering some low-grade chuckles here and there but nothing at the level of writer-director Taika Waititi’s best work – nor is it even on par with Marvel’s better comedic showcases. In short, it’s just not very good. Read More

post

Fearlessly Silly Nazi Satire ‘JOJO RABBIT’ is Soul-Cleansing and Good-Spirited 

by Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

As seemingly improbable as Schindler‘s List with an added laugh track or Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom subbing in Hitler Youth for Boy Scouts, Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit’s very premise is a bold thought experiment: how do you make modern audiences (notoriously sensitive modern audiences, that is) comfortable laughing at WWII-era Nazism? How do you get them to sympathize with literal Nazi characters? And, maybe most importantly, how do you do all this without getting the endorsement of literal modern-day Nazis?  Read More

post

Out in Theaters: ‘THOR: RAGNAROK’

by Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Candy-colored Thor: Ragnarok is a retro, dimension-hopping hoot. Rambunctious, joyous and just plain fun to watch, Ragnarok is shellacked with vintage Taika Waititi style, the critical darling director behind such rollicking Rotten Tomatoes-adored comedy-adventures as Hunt for the Wilderpeople, What We Do in the Shadows and Boy retaining his idiomatic filmmaking tactics even under the watchful eye of notoriously handsy Marvel producers. The best of the Thor films (and this coming from someone who actually admits to enjoying the previous two), Ragnarok employs Taika’s signature witty, irreverent approach to comedy and his knack for building genuine camaraderie among squirelly outcasts to craft the funniest blockbuster of the year, one that doubles as a hell of an odd-couple intergalactic road trip, even if it still barely breaks the lather-rinse-repeat nature of the Marvel Cinematic Universe mold.  Read More

post

Out in Theaters: ‘HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE’

by Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Taika Waititi‘s oddball Hunt for the Wilderpeople continues the Kiwi director’s aggressive expansion into the mainstream while still maintaining his goofy, grinning, soft-centered tendencies. Coming off the roaring critical success of vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, Wilderpeople is a more grounded venture (but then again, what isn’t?) that maintains Waititi’s ironic and largely innocent sense of humor while injecting a fair measure of heart into the affair. Read More

post

Sundance ’16 Review: ‘HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE’

by Posted in Festival Reviews Tagged , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

Taika Waititi‘s oddball Hunt for the Wilderpeople continues the Kiwi director’s aggressive expansion into the mainstream while still maintaining his goofy, grinning, soft-centered tendencies. Coming off the roaring critical success of vampire mockumentary What We Do in the Shadows, Wilderpeople is a more grounded venture (but then again, what isn’t?) that maintains Waititi’s ironic and largely innocent sense of humor while injecting a fair measure of heart into the affair. Read More

post

Out in Theaters: WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS

by Posted in Out in Theaters Tagged , , , , , , , 1 Comment

From 1984 to 2006, Christopher Guest lampooned perplexing cultural phenomenons from dog shows to community theater. Guest was quick to caricature and mock but never did so in lieu of creating earnest characters. Rather, his work paired the easy-to-poke-fun-at ludicrousness of small town obsessions with the genuine earnestness of their salt-of-the-earth makeup. For every Meg and Hamilton Swan and their posh Weimaraner, there was a Harlan Pepper and his basset hound. Were Guest still making movies today, one might expect his signature mockumentary stylings to take on child beauty pageants or vocal protest groups. Or vampire flatmates.   Read More