Author: Caillou Pettis

Blinded By The Light: The BRWC Review.

Javed Khan (Viveik Kalra) is a British teen of Pakistani descent growing up in 1987 England. Amidst the racial and economic turmoil of the times, he writes poetry as a means to escape the intolerance of his hometown and the inflexibility of his traditional father. But when a classmate introduces him to the music of Bruce Springsteen, Javed sees parallels to his working-class life in the powerful lyrics. As Javed discovers an outlet for his own pent-up dreams, he also begins to express himself in his own voice.

Every once in a while, we need a film to come along that will warm our hearts and take us on an incredibly inspiring journey to escape from the real world. One of my favorite films of this entire decade thus far was John Carney’s Sing Street. Everything down to the performances, music, acting, and emotion felt so rich and raw and it was one of the most inspiring pictures of the decade, and perhaps in the entire coming-of-age/music genre.

This is what I was hoping Gurinder Chadha’s Bruce Springsteen-inspired movie Blinded by the Light would do for me. I was wanting to leave the theatre with a big smile on my face, and I wanted to feel something after watching it. After watching it, I can happily inform you that this film did that exact thing for me, and so much more.

The cast of Blinded by the Light is an extremely diverse one which is great to see. Often films of this calibre do not feature this many people of color sadly, which is why its so fresh and exciting to see this cast. Practically every actor in the film does a truly terrific job here, but the strongest one has to be Viveik Kalra, who portrays lead protagonist Javed Khan. He is a teenager with a plethora of hopes and dreams. He wants to leave his depressing town of Luton with hopes of moving to somewhere better to pursue his goals of becoming a writer and finally obtaining true happiness in his life. Why is this such a struggle? His home life is down-right awful.

At home, Javed’s father always finds a way to shoot down his confidence every time he brings up his writings such as his diary entries and poems. His father wants him to have a different job, specifically a doctor, but that is not what Javed wants. He wants to do what he has dreamed of doing ever since he was a young boy.

The story of Javed finding Bruce Springsteen’s music which inspires him to finally begin to pursue his dreams of becoming a writer is one of the most heartwarming stories I have experienced in a cinema in quite a long time. Throughout every single scene, I was rooting for Javed to succeed and I was hoping that things would eventually work out for him. Kalra does such a great job here, that he never once felt like an actor portraying somebody. It is truly remarkable.

Since this is a film that is centered around the music of Springsteen, set in the 1980s, you would more than likely expect there to be some great songs played throughout, and there gratefully is. Every once in a while, we will hear an iconic 80s song (usually a Springsteen hit) and the scenes that accompany them are a blast to watch.

When it comes to issues with the movie, there is only really one thing that I wish was done differently, and that is about it. There are a couple of sequences in the film that I felt were cut too short. Some scenes end without an explanation as to what happened, or if they do have an explanation, it is essentially glossed over and they never bring it up again. It would have been nice to have had these scenes extended by even just a minute or two to better explain the situation.

Blinded by the Light is an incredibly raw and powerful picture with an inspiring story, outstanding performances, and deeply emotional moments.

Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark: The BRWC Review.

It’s 1968 in America. Change is blowing in the wind…but seemingly far removed from the unrest in the cities is the small town of Mill Valley where for generations, the shadow of the Bellows family has loomed large. It is in their mansion on the edge of town that Sarah, a young girl with horrible secrets, turned her tortured life into a series of scary stories, written in a book that has transcended time-stories that have a way of becoming all too real for a group of teenagers who discover Sarah’s terrifying home.

There is something so oddly endearing about reading scary stories to your friends when you are a kid, or having a scary story read to you. Even though you’re aware that you’re going to end up scared, you still have a tinge of excitement within you. What will the story be about? Does it feel real? And perhaps most importantly, will it be genuinely horrifying? This is what made Alvin Schwartz’s 1981 book so beloved amongst millions ever since. All of those elements were present in his book, and were chalked full of extremely terrifying stories and pictures to accompany it that not only have frightened children, but even adults.

André Øvredal’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark has been on my radar ever since those creepy teasers were released during this year’s Super Bowl game, and I was hoping that it would do Schwartz’s original book justice. Gratefully, I can say that this film most certainly does in a number of ways.

One of the reasons why the movie works so well is because of the performances from all of the child actors, namely Zoe Colletti. Whenever a film features an almost entirely child cast, there can be a big danger present, as sometimes child actors just aren’t nearly as good as adults. That is most definitely not the case here. Much like Andy Muschietti’s 2017 interpretation of It, the young actors are featured almost primarily, and they do a great job. Colletti portrays Stella Nicholls, an aspiring horror writer who lives with her dad and is usually lonely. The journey her character goes on throughout Scary Stories is always one that is interesting, mainly because her backstory is interesting. Throughout the film, I always felt sympathy for her, and I was always rooting for her to succeed in every single scene.

The dynamic chemistry between all four main actors – Colletti, Michael Garza, and Gabriel Rush is truly wonderous. There was not a single scene in which their friendship felt faked. It felt as if I was watching a group of real life friends being caught up in a horrific situation.

But let’s talk about by far, the best aspect of Scary Stories – the horror elements. When I was younger, and I looked at Stephen Gammell’s illustrations in the aforementioned book of the same name, I was horrified by them. There was something so offputting and quite simply creepy about them that has given millions of kids nightmares for decades, mainly because of the ghastly monsters depicted. Those same monsters are just as gnarly here, with them being extremely faithfully adaptated to the big screen here.

While impressively crafted and handled well, the creatures and the horror scenes, were not necessarily scary, instead they were just somewhat creepy. I am confident that it is because I am older than this film’s target demographic, but I found the monsters to just be really fun to watch on screen. However, for younger viewers, they will haunt their dreams. The movie is certainly aimed towards those approximately ages twelve or thirteen, and if I was that age when watching this picture, I would most likely be genuinely scared.

When it comes to issues here, the screenplay can suffer a bit from rather slow pacing. The entire first act was honestly a bit of a drag to sit through. It features quite a bit of heavy character setup with not a whole lot going on to spark the interest of the viewer until later on. Even though there are some moments in the first act with some good humor, and really the entire movie has pretty good humor when it needs to, there could have been something exciting happening in the first portion of the film. It is not until about fourty or so minutes into the movie until our first real taste of horror is seen, and this is a picture with a running time of one hundred and eight minutes. It just felt as if the filmmakers did not quite use every second of time to their advantage.

Also, there are some times in which the overall plot can feel quite formulaic and something that we have seen done numerous times before. There are some moments in which it can be a bit predictable as to what will happen to a certain character, or an action that a character will make.

Finally, the characters for the most part were ones that I didn’t really care that much about at the end of the day. There was only really one character in the film that I cared about, at that was Colletti’s Stella Nicholls. Everybody else seemed rather disposable and they seemed inconsequential to the rest of the story unfortunately.

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark is a fun and creepy horror flick, especially for younger viewers, even if it does suffer from pacing and familiarity issues.

Dora And The Lost City Of Gold: The BRWC Review.

Having spent most of her life exploring the jungle, nothing could prepare Dora (Isabela Moner) for her most dangerous adventure yet — high school. Accompanied by a ragtag group of teens and Boots the Monkey (voice of Danny Trejo), Dora embarks on a quest to save her parents while trying to solve the seemingly impossible mystery behind a lost Incan civilization.

Well, this is most certainly going to come as a complete and utter surprise isn’t it? Here goes: Dora and the Lost City of Gold is actually exceptionally great in a plethora of ways. Who would have thought that a live-action film adaptation of the beloved Nickelodeon animated Dora the Explorer television series could be so good? I certainly was on the fence. The trailers accompanying the film did not hit the mark for me. It seemed like it was going to be a bland and forgettable children’s film, but boy was I wrong.

One of the main reasons why James Bobin’s latest feature works so well is because of Isabela Moner, who portrays the titular character. Ever since her work in 2017’s Transformers: The Last Knight, I have become a fan of her, as she is genuinely a terrific actress, and she has not delivered a weak performance yet. In fact, her role as Dora is her best to date.

She perfectly encapsulates the feel-good and optimistic spirit that the character has been known for ever since the animated series here. While watching the film, it is tough to not feel the charm that exudes from Moner and her performance. She delivers some really great laughs when it is needed as well, with a couple in particular being truly hilarious. Whether she is singing one of her classic songs, swinging around the jungle, or simply engaging in conversation, Dora is such a likeable and interesting character here.

In cinema, there has been quite a few heroines that young children have looked up to as role models – Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Emma Watson as Hermione Granger, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman – and now, Isabela Moner as Dora. She is going to be a new fan favorite for a very long time, and I am genuinely excited for younger audiences in particular to see this movie.

This is also an extremely fun picture to watch with not a dull scene to be found. Every single second has something to laugh at or have fun with. Bobin and the rest of the filmmakers made sure to utilize all one hundred and two minutes to their advantage, and they did an excellent job at it.

Something that I can say deeply took me off guard was the amount of heart and emotion Dora had within it. As aforementioned, the trailers made the film look like a fun and forgettable family film that would only be enjoyable for the youngest of children, but that is most certainly not the case. The film does not shy away from having some actually emotional moments, particularly with Dora and Jeff Wahlberg’s Diego, who is her cousin in the movie.

When it comes to flaws, even though practically every moment is a ton of fun to watch, for the most part, the stakes present are relatively low. A large portion of the big action scenes feel unfortunately weightless, and it can feel very blatant that the characters involved will come out of the particular situation unscathed. However, two scenes in the film, one in the second act and one in the third, did have some real stakes involved which was a nice thing to see.

While the humor for the most part is quite hilarious with Moner delivering the best bits of comedy gold, there are a couple of times in which the jokes just did not land. Unfortunately, there are two poop jokes in the film which are brought up and it would have been nice to see better humor in these scenes.

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is an incredibly fun adventure with a ton of heart and humor, and a truly moving and charming performance from Isabela Moner.

Playmobil: The Movie – Review.

Marla (Anya Taylor-Joy) is forced to abandon her carefully structured life to embark on an epic journey to find her younger brother Charlie (Gabriel Bateman) who has disappeared into the vast and wondrous animated world of Playmobil toys.

In the past few years in cinema, a whole bunch of studios have been attempting to make successful feature films based on toys ever since the massive hit that was 2014’s The LEGO Movie. Not only did the audiences fall in love with Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s animated picture, but the majority of critics did as well, proving that strong and amazing stories can be told on toys, besides the Toy Story movies.

We have already received a feature this year based on a famous toy line, UglyDolls, and in the near future we are getting a live action Barbie starring Margot Robbie as the titular character. Does Playmobil: The Movie follow the trend of LEGO Movie with a great sense of humor, fun and exciting story, and good characters? Unfortunately not.

By far the biggest issue with Playmobil is its complete lack of heart and its sense of fun is strangely minimal. Something that this film and the aforementioned LEGO Movie have in common, is that there are certain sequences in which we will cut to a fully live action shot with no animation being involved. In fact, the opening to this film is Anya Taylor-Joy’s Marla talking to herself about how her hopes and dreams. This storyline does not really go anywhere unfortunately, and everytime they cut back to this, it seemed quite forced and unnecessary for the type of movie they were going for. While Taylor-Joy is good in the movie, her character should have had a lot more development to make her more interesting.

I was at least hoping that the moments with the titular toys would be funny or entertaining to watch but they just were not. All of the comedy present in these scenes are aimed towards extremely young kids, and anybody above the age of four will find them tired and frustrating. Disney and Pixar are two companies that never fail to impress with this element. Their humor never panders towards children, but instead manages to be funny for audiences of all ages.

Even the times in which we follow the Playmobil characters on their various adventures in the animation medium come across as nothing more than scenes that are there in hopes to entertain young children, with no real emotional connection present. There were only a couple of good moments involved in which there was some fun to be had, but it was quite blatant to me while watching that this picture was made to simply sell toys, which it more than likely will.

In addition, the animation is quite exceptional for the most part. The toys in the film look exactly like the real life Playmobil toys look like, and the attention to detail on some of them is quite good, though it is nowhere near as greatly detailed or animated as Toy Story 4 or Incredibles 2 to name a few.

Playmobil: The Movie is an unexciting and disappointingly unfunny tale that only the youngest of children will get a kick out of.

Hobbs & Shaw: The BRWC Review.

Ever since hulking lawman Luke Hobbs (Dwayne Johnson), a loyal agent of America’s Diplomatic Security Service, and lawless outcast Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), a former British military elite operative, first faced off in 2015’s Furious 7, the duo have swapped smack talk and body blows as they’ve tried to take each other down.

But when cyber-genetically enhanced anarchist Brixton Lore (Idris Elba) gains control of an insidious bio-threat that could alter humanity forever — and bests a brilliant and fearless rogue MI6 agent (Vanessa Kirby), who just happens to be Shaw’s sister — these two sworn enemies will have to partner up to bring down the only guy who might be badder than themselves.

The long-running The Fast and the Furious film franchise is among of the highest grossing of all time, with a number of the entries managing to gross over one billion dollars. It appears that audiences agree that there is something oddly entertaining about a group of high-testosterone men driving fast cars and beating each other up for a couple of hours, and that is exactly what David Leitch’s Hobbs & Shaw is.

When it comes to the entertainment value here, it is truly a blast to watch and there are barely any boring scenes throughout its titan-sized running time. Whether its The Rock running around and punching villains in the face, Statham getting caught up in car chases, or the two of them together simply trading hilarious insults with one another, it is a genuinely fun film to sit back and enjoy.

You don’t go into a Fast and the Furious film expecting Oscar levels of filmmaking. You go into these films expecting an absolutely ridiculous popcorn flick that in all reality makes no sense and can be over-the-top corny at times, but still manages to stay highly amusing. What makes it work so well though, is that the filmmakers are extremely self-aware about the film. They know that this is not a film to be taken extremely seriously, and therefore, it all feels like a joyride that we can sit back and relax for, rather than one with high stakes.

The action sequences throughout the film are actually a ton of fun to watch, and there are gratefully a bunch of them. For the majority, the action scenes are handled fairly well, managing to stray away from the loathed “shaky cam” tactic of filmmaking, and instead attempting to focus the camera on the actors. There are two true standout scenes in Hobbs & Shaw that are so highly unbelievable yet incredibly amusing that you just cannot help but smile while watching it.

Idris Elba portrays the main antagonist of the picture, Brixton Lore, a cybernetically enhanced man who has a big evil scheme up his sleeve and will take out anybody in his path to succeed. He is most definitely the definition of a mustache-stroking villain.

A villain with no real motive if you really stop to think about it, but that all ties into my earlier point – the filmmakers are aware that Lore is a corny villain and they manage to poke fun at him numerous times here and there.

Hobbs & Shaw is an absolutely absurd film, but that’s why its so much fun. It is a blast of a blockbuster with a bunch of action, over-the-top moments and some great comedic banter from Johnson and Statham.