In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, I have had a look at one of the very best and funniest movies of the past year, a live-action remake of an animated classic, and a, for some, much-anticipated summer movie sequel. All of these are 2023 flicks that you may or may not have missed. Click below to learn more about my thoughts on the specific films.
F.A.Q.
- What are Additional Bite-Sized Reviews?
– My movie and television catch-up review series ‘Additional Bite-Sized Reviews‘ is an evolution of the Overview-article section previously titled ‘What I Didn’t Write About.’ In articles such as this one, I will provide my readers with my thoughts on select new films, new shows, or even classics that I feel like giving my thoughts on relatively briefly, since I don’t have the time to dedicate thorough reviews to them at this point in time. - Why do the bite-sized reviews not include either a letter grade or a review score?
– In my full and thorough reviews, I like to score or grade what I watch. But since these reviews aren’t as detailed, I think it is fairer to the films and shows to simply just decide whether or not to recommend them. I guess you could say this is the only type of review that is basically ‘scored’ with the classic thumbs-up/thumbs-down-method on my site, though sometimes my recommendation answer comes with a caveat.
Bottoms | Film | Directed by Emma Seligman | Release Year: 2023 | Seen on: PrimeVideo | Recommended?: Yes — arguably the best comedy film of the year.
I’m so glad I finally caught up with Emma Seligman’s Bottoms. I was hugely impressed with Seligman’s first feature Shiva Baby (and I primarily remember it for how it visualized paralyzing anxiety), and Bottoms is a more than worthy sophomore effort. What initially may seem like a lesser, generic fare, turns out to be a really fresh original comedy. At first, it seems like this is a fairly formulaic Superbad or American Pie-esque teen comedy about trying to lose your virginity before college, only this time it is with a lesbian teen perspective. Frankly, I even initially thought to myself that certain key characters felt quite similar to, say, the characters from Superbad. As the plot developed, some of those similarities faded away, but I will say that certain character arcs were quite predictable and familiar.
“Nobody hates us because we’re gay, they hate us because we’re gay, untalented, and ugly.”
But the film took me by surprise as it went along and in great ways, too. Suddenly, it blends that ‘losing your virginity’ premise with a teenage and female self-defense version of Fight Club, which results in some truly hilarious scenes. This film could’ve easily gotten by relying solely on the pitch-perfect rapport between Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, but it is even more than that. The supporting characters are memorable (with Marshawn Lynch and Ruby Cruz’s performances being great surprises), there are some excellent needle-drops, and the generationally-specific comedy landed again and again (there are so many gags that I probably would’ve been obsessed with if I had seen this when I was younger). Later, the great climactic (and bloody) fight is absolutely sensational with great music and cuts from slow-motion to extreme regularly-paced violence adding to the energy of it all.
In general, it is a super tight production that wastes zero moments in its 90-ish minute runtime (though I do think it could’ve done with maybe or two additional scenes just prior to the climactic events of the film). Bottoms is a hysterical and explosive teen comedy, and I can see myself returning to it time and time again, though, I will say that, I do think the film doesn’t always balance over-the-topness with teen comedy realism as well as it could. While I found the over-exaggerated male characters (for the purpose of satirization) to be quite a funny joke, I do think it went too far in that direction, when it could’ve earned the over-the-topness even without reducing certain male characters to that extent.
The Little Mermaid | Film | Directed by Rob Marshall | Release Year: 2023 | Seen on: Disney+ | Recommended?: No, unless you can’t watch the original animated film.
As someone who grew up in Copenhagen where you can find the famous Edvard Eriksen bronze statue ‘The Little Mermaid,’ which — like this film and the instant classic 1989 animated film — is based on Danish author Hans Christian Andersen’s 1837 fairy tale, I, honestly, expected to really dislike this film. I should stress that this has absolutely nothing to do with the (to some, controversial) casting of the titular mermaid. Rather, I expected to dislike this film because I’ve grown quite tired of the Disney live-action remake trend. It worked for The Jungle Book, Pete’s Dragon, and Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella — those are really good — but, other than those, these adaptations just can’t hold a candle to the animated classics.
Now that I’ve actually seen this new Rob Marshall adaptation, I feel that I must come right out and say that it is actually… I mean, it’s at best okay, and, at worst, unimpressive. It is a perfectly harmless live-action remake that is mostly competently made, but which doesn’t leave a strong impression. Halle Bailey is ‘fine’ in the lead role. This film’s renditions of the most popular songs are ‘fine.’ There’s nothing outright awful in this film, and, on the flip side, there is nothing that is extraordinarily great about it.
I can’t really recommend it, as I don’t think it improves on the classic animated film which I grew up watching all the time with my sister. Some may think that it sounds pathetic, but I remember thinking Ursula was really scary. Melissa McCarthy’s version didn’t have that effect on me, but she does a really competent job in a role that could’ve easily gone wrong. Javier Bardem has the right look for his character, but he isn’t given a lot to work with, and he doesn’t leave a strong impression — he’s a great actor, but here he’s just sort of… there. Daveed Diggs is fine as Sebastian, but the fact that they insisted on making the animals that sing and dance photo-real works against the film. I’ll add that the film feels long, that the underwater sequences disappoint, and that Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ‘The Scuttlebutt’ rap is genuinely jarring to listen to — it sticks out like a sore thumb. A baffling addition from a songwriter who I really like.
It is nowhere near as good as the best Disney live-action remake, but it also isn’t the worst of the bunch. It will get the job done if you want a live-action version of the Disney classic, but I don’t really feel like it makes a strong enough case for itself, so I’d still point people in the direction of the animated film.
Meg 2: The Trench| Film | Directed by Ben Wheatley | Release Year: 2023 | Seen on: HBO Max | Recommended?: No.
I’ll be honest, I barely remember the first The Meg film. So, before I finally sat down to watch The Meg 2: The Trench, I re-read my review of the first film, which I, apparently, was frustrated with for being a little bit at war with itself. Was it going to be the silly shark flick or something more along the lines of a gritty, bloody Statham shark action film? While my review noted some signs of the latter still being there in the film, the first film was mostly concerned with the former — to be silly. Unfortunately, that angle wasn’t as effective for me when I watched the first film. I didn’t fully find it to be funny and entertaining silly shlock.
From that perspective, I was honestly pretty happy with how this sequel opened because it made sure to announce for all to see that it knew exactly what it was. In the first twenty minutes, we have deeply silly dialogue, a talking parrot commenting on how ‘not nice’ Statham is, and some confounding and contrived situations between a man and a shark simply so that stuff could happen on-screen. On top of that, it opens with an attention-grabbing CGI-exploration of the food chain 65 million years ago, or, you know, this film’s understanding of the food chain 65 million years ago. Its tongue is placed firmly in its cheek from the first needle-drop (“Under Pressure,”).
This film knows what it is, and it is going for it fully. Or, you know, that’s what I initially thought. Not long thereafter, a lengthy section of the film begins wherein the focus is fully on uninteresting human drama that takes up too much of the film’s running time. “This is some dumb-ass shit, mark my words,” a character says at one point. He’s right. So much time is wasted deep sea walking — that, by the way, isn’t shot in an interesting, entertaining, or intelligible way — and going over its mining subplot. The film basically stalls right after its silly opening and then we just wait, and watch our clocks until the Megalodons start doing fun stuff again in the last thirty minutes or so as Fun Island is properly introduced.
It is a film that fails structurally and with its completely uninteresting and unmemorable characters. The silly, fun parts are all basically just in the trailer with a bunch of added human nonsense that is poorly written, defies logic, and is unengaging. As such, even though the stilly stuff here is sometimes delightfully silly, this film has no business being almost two hours long — because it wastes our time for so much of the film with subplots no one cares about or can be expected to care about. And, you know, of course, it ends with our main characters seated on a beach, sipping alcohol like they’re in Fast and the Furious.
– Reviews Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 