HEDGEHOGGING OUR BETS

Check out my reviews, online on Phoenix Magazine, of Sonic the Hedgehog 3...

...and of Arizona Theatre Company's Scrooge! with Shuler Hensley in the title role...

...running through December 28 at Tempe Center for the Arts.

PRO AND CONCLAVE

This week Phoenix Film Critics Society, of which I am a proud founding member--the last remaining founding member, I think!--announced our 2024 awards.

Brady Corbet's The Brutalist took Best Picture, but numerically the big winner was Conclave, with five awards. As usual, some of the honorees reflect my voting, some don't, but there are a lot of worthwhile movies on the list.

My own Top Ten list is still in progress, and is slated to post after the New Year.

KAIJU; GESUNDHEIT

A few odds and ends: First, check out my review, on Geek News Network, of the Jeffery Angles translation of Shigeru Kayama's original Godzilla and Godzilla Raids Again novelizations from 1955...

...as well as my review, online at Phoenix Magazine, of Kraven the Hunter...

And here's one of the odder pieces of "For Your Consideration" movie schwag I've ever recieved; a View-Master with images of Angelina Jolie as Maria Callas in Pablo Larrain's Maria:

WHY ASK Y2K?

Check out my review, online at Phoenix Magazine, of Kyle Mooney's comedy Y2K...

...now playing in the multiplexes.

PAWS FOR REFLECTION

Now playing at Harkins Shea:

Flow--If you see only one Latvian animated movie about a cat this year, make it this one. Directed by young Gints Zilbalodis from a script he wrote with Matiss Kaza, this wordless, dreamlike, almost free-associational feature is possibly the most visually beautiful movie of the year, and it has one of the year's most vividly drawn heroes, too.

The main character--the title character? I couldn't be sure; the title (Straume in Latvian) may just refer to the flow of the waters that sweep the characters along--is a small, dark short-haired cat with wide, perpetually alarmed eyes. The creature wanders an idyllic wooded area alongside a body of water, reflection-gazing and hoping to score a fish from some stray dogs.

Then an enormous flash flood rages through the area. The cat barely makes it to high ground, and eventually takes refuge, as the waters continue to rise, aboard a derelict boat which gathers an inexplicably diverse assortment of other animal refugees from different continents or islands: a patient capybara, a ring-tailed lemur with hoarder tendencies, a stern but protective secretarybird, a playful, irksomely guileless retriever.

It may be a postapocalyptic world through which the craft carries this oddball crew; human habitations appear to be deserted, and a colossal whale that surfaces nearby from time to time seems to be a multi-flippered mutant. Gradually the animals learn to steer the boat a little; they also learn to care and even sacrifice for each other.

If this sounds sentimental and annoyingly anthropomorphic, I can only say that it didn't feel that way to me. The animal behavior comes across believably, as does their capacity for growth and empathy. If it's anthropomorphic, it's about as low-key as anthropomorphism can be, and the subtle yet insistent sense of allegory for the human experience is moving.

Zilbalodis takes Flow into pretty epic and mystical realms in the later acts, yet on another level the movie works as an animal odyssey adventure in the genre of the Incredible Journey films, or Milo & Otis. At the core of it is the sympathetic and admirable pussycat, meowing indignantly at the perils all around, yet facing them with heart and pluck. It's not to be missed.

From the sublime to the, well, not so sublime; now on VOD...

The Invisible Raptor--In this horror comedy, an invisible predatory dinosaur escapes from a laboratory manned by Sean Astin, makes its way to a dinosaur theme park and raises bloody mayhem in the neighborhood. A down-on-his-luck paleontologist (Mike Capes) reluctantly teams up with an imbecilic security guard (David Shackelford) to battle the creature; eventually the paleontologist's gorgeous ex (Caitlin McHugh) and a local chicken farmer (Sandy Martin) join the fight.

This very crass, deliberately lowbrow but occasionally funny film is not only gory but scatological; the raptor may be invisible, but its poop, once excreted, certainly isn't. It's a polished production, directed by Mike Hermosa from a script by Capes and Johnny Wickham. The special effects are good, and the object of its spoof/homage is unmistakable: Steven Spielberg. From the look and sound of the movie to the names of the characters, not just the obvious references to Jurassic Park but also to Jaws and E.T., it's a striking testament to the master's influence.

I wonder if anyone connected to this film is old enough to remember Sound of Horror (El Sonido de la Muerte)...

...a riotous Spanish shocker from 1966, also, believe it or not, about an invisible dinosaur who makes the truly awful, squalling sound of the title. It has several elements in common with The Invisible Raptor, but I think I prefer the earlier film, if only because the cast includes the glorious Ingrid Pitt.

ROME IF YOU WANT TO

 Check out my review of Ridley Scott's Gladiator II...

...online at Phoenix Magazine.

SLED ASTRAY

Check out my review, online at Phoenix Magazine, of Red One...

...the silly but fun holiday action comedy with Dwayne Johnson, J.K. Simmons, Chris Evans and Lucy Liu, now in the multiplexes.