Tag: Maya Hawke

Inside Out 2 (2024) | REVIEW

Embarrassment (voiced by Paul Walter Hauser), Anxiety (voiced by Maya Hawke), Envy (voiced by Ayo Edebiri), and Ennui (voiced by Adèle Exarchopoulos) in Inside Out 2 — PHOTO: Disney.

Directed by Kelsey Mann — Screenplay by Meg LeFauve and Dave Holstein.

Following a string of films that were either dumped onto Disney+ or that disappointed critics and/or audiences, I think it is fair to say that, earlier this year, Pixar got its groove back. With the long-awaited release of Inside Out 2, Pixar had one of its golden internal properties back out in theaters, and it certainly felt like they had something here as it did well with critics, as well as found the type of audience that propelled it to breaking records. Eventually, Inside Out 2 became the biggest animated film ever made based on its box office numbers. But, as a major fan of the original film, which I declared a masterpiece when it was released, I was curious if the long-awaited sequel was actually as good as its reputation suggested. Well, I’ve now finally seen the emotionally-driven sequel. While I don’t think it is as novel of a film as the first one, or a masterpiece for that matter, I definitely think the sequel is a worthy follow-up to Pixar’s emotionally rich sensation.

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Asteroid City (2023) | REVIEW

Jason Schwartzman’s Augie Steenbeck leaning out of a window in Wes Anderson’s ASTEROID CITY — PHOTO: Focus Features / Universal Pictures International.

Directed by Wes Anderson — Screenplay by Wes Anderson — Story by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola.

Everyone who has ever seen one Wes Anderson film knows exactly what a Wes Anderson film looks like. His signature style has made him a lot of fans and admirers over the years, and it has also earned him some notable imitators. Nowadays, with the advent of AI, automatically generated images, and the like, a trend of recreating fake film trailers in the style of Wes Anderson has surfaced. You can now go online and find several videos hyping up fake Wes Anderson-style films with AI-generated images of well-known actors that don’t exactly look right (I even saw one for a fake American adaptation of the iconic Danish Olsen Gang films). With the emergence of such artificiality leading to so many conflicting emotions, might I suggest that you check out the real thing? Asteroid City, Wes Anderson’s eleventh feature-length film, is well worth seeking out. As a matter of fact, I think it might be one of his best. 

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‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant (2023),’ ‘Red, White, and Royal Blue (2023),’ ‘Haunted Mansion (2023),’ ‘Clerks III (2022),’ and ‘Mainstream (2020)’ | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R) Haunted Mansion (Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures); Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer); Clerks III (Lionsgate); Mainstream (IFC Films); and Red, White, and Royal Blue (Amazon Prime Video).

In this edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, I take a look at a handful of films that I checked out over the last couple of months. These films were interesting enough for me to have formulated notes about them that never materialized into extensive singular reviews — instead, here they are in bite-sized form. Are any of these worth your time? Well, let’s have a look.

Continue reading “‘Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant (2023),’ ‘Red, White, and Royal Blue (2023),’ ‘Haunted Mansion (2023),’ ‘Clerks III (2022),’ and ‘Mainstream (2020)’ | Bite-Sized Reviews” →

REVIEW: Stranger Things – Season Four, Vols. 1 & 2 (2022)

(Left-to-Right) Joe Keery, Gaten Matarazzo, Maya Hawke, Sadie Sink, Natalia Dyer, and Caleb McLaughlin’s characters must confront a new mysterious and murderous monster in the latest season of ‘Stranger Things’ — Photo: NETFLIX.

This is a review of both halves — Vols. I & II– of Stranger Things: Season Four.

Like The Crown and BoJack Horseman, Stranger Things has long been one of Netflix’s most consistently good shows. The nostalgia-based supernatural coming-of-age horror-thriller show that was created by the Duffer brothers has managed to stay really good and really entertaining for four seasons now — including this latest season, which was split into two parts (with the season finale having a runtime of almost two-and-a-half hours) — and, even though the show still wears its inspirations on its sleeves, the show is getting better in many ways. In fact, I would say that this fourth season, which is probably the goriest and most horror-like of the bunch, is the best season of the show since the very rewatchable debut season, even though this latest season included two season-long subplots that were never as engaging as the main story was.

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Additional Bite-Sized Reviews, Summer ’21, Pt. 2: ‘The Fear Street Trilogy,’ ‘Bad Trip,’ and More

Maya Hawke as Heather in FEAR STREET PART ONE: 1994 – Photo: Netflix.

In this edition of my monthly movie and television catch-up article series titled ‘Additional Bite-Sized Reviews,’ I talk about my experience of trying to catch-up on some of the 2021 films released earlier this year, including an entire trilogy of films! What did I think about the Fear Street-films? Is the Rear Window-inspired flick, The Woman in the Window, worth a watch? Is Bad Trip, the hidden camera comedy, funny enough for its runtime? Are Doug Liman and Alexandre Aja’s latest films any good? Well, scroll down to find out in another jam-packed edition of Additional Bite-Sized Reviews!

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REVIEW: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)

Theatrical Release Poster – Sony Pictures Releasing

The following is a spoiler review of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood — Directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Quentin Tarantino has claimed that he will only direct ten feature films, and, since he considers his latest film to be his ninth, that puts a lot of pressure on this penultimate effort as a director. Having just recently rewatched and reviewed his filmography as a director, I had prepared myself for this undeniable event film for cinephiles. When I walked out of the theater, I had a soft smile on my face, and I kept on repeating these words to my mother and sister, who had seen the film with me: “I think this is his most moving movie yet.” Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is tense but also laidback, sometimes violent but generally quite kind, and much to my own surprise, as Tarantino ended his film, I had a lump in my throat — I got a little bit choked up. Continue reading “REVIEW: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019)” →

REVIEW: Stranger Things: Season Three (2019)

Release Poster – Netflix

The following is a review of the third season of Netflix’s Stranger Things — Created by the Duffer Brothers.

Today, Stranger Things is, alongside The Crown, probably the original show that has become the face of Netflix. The first season of the series was a surprise hit that seemed to have significantly overperformed. It was a nostalgic 80s science-fiction drama with children in the leading roles that made people think of E. T., The Goonies, and many other films like those. It was a 2016 breakout hit that gave career boosts to David Harbour, Millie Bobby Brown, and Finn Wolfhard. The much anticipated second season, which was released the following year, wasn’t met with as much acclaim, but still succeeded in developing characters’ relationships satisfyingly while still bringing pleasant references to the beloved 1980s-era cinema, with Aliens now being the primary inspiration. Continue reading “REVIEW: Stranger Things: Season Three (2019)” →