The first thing to know about The Electric State is that the whole thing is daft as tits on a tank. It has the same blend of deadly seriousness and utter lunacy that one finds in, say, Who Killed Roger Rabbit?
I like stories with moral ambiguity, but in the case of Wicked it just seemed to have moral confusion. It begins with Glinda informing the Munchkins that the Wicked Witch is dead, to mass jubilation. It’s a glimpse into the future of the vain, vacuous, vacant Galinda who is smirking at the death of her friend and taking credit for it.
In most movies, the main character’s developing lycanthropy is pretty much front and center, and the rest of the character’s life is incidental, if not entirely subsumed. You know, like Jack in Werewolves of London. (Still my favorite werewolf movie).
In Nightbitch, the lycanthropy is more or less incidental to the other things going on in the character’s life.
I didn’t do a lot of reviews this past year. Fifty three in all. It was an election year and I write mostly about politics, and I have a backlog going into 2025. Also, if I think something is rubbish, I’m very unlikely to review it. And there was a fair old bit of rubbish that came out last year.
Directed & Screenplay by Chris Sanders Based on The Wild Robot by Peter Brown Produced by Jeff Hermann Starring Lupita Nyong’o Pedro Pascal Kit Connor Bill Nighy Stephanie Hsu Mark Hamill Catherine O’Hara Matt Berry Ving Rhames Cinematography Chris Stover Edited by Mary Blee Music by Kris Bowers Production company DreamWorks Animation Distributed by Universal …
Flow Directed by Gints Zilbalodis Written by Gints Zilbalodis & Matīss Kaža Produced by Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža, Ron Dyens, Gregory Zalcman Music by Gints Zilbalodis & Rihards Zalupe Production companies Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions, Take Five Distributed by UFO Distribution (France) Running time 85 minutes Countries Belgium, France, Latvia Budget €3.5 million Maybe …
Written and directed by Garth Jennings Produced by Chris Meledandri & Janet Healy The animation was created entirely in France by Illumination Mac Guff.[ Starring Matthew McConaughey Reese Witherspoon Seth MacFarlane Scarlett Johansson John C. Reilly Taron Egerton Tori Kelly Cinematography Guylo Homsy Edited by Gregory Perler Music by Joby Talbot Production companies Universal Pictures …
Joker: Folie à deux Directed by Todd Phillips Written by Scott Silver & Todd Phillips Based on Characters by DC Comics Produced by Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Joseph Garner Starring Joaquin Phoenix Lady Gaga Brendan Gleeson Catherine Keener Zazie Beetz Steve Coogan Harry Lawtey Leigh Gill Cinematography Lawrence Sher Edited by Jeff Groth Music …
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Directed by Tim Burton Screenplay by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar Story by Alfred Gough, Miles Millar, Seth Grahame-Smith Based on Characters by Michael McDowell, Larry Wilson Produced by Marc Toberoff, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Tommy Harper, Tim Burton Starring Michael Keaton Winona Ryder Catherine O’Hara Justin Theroux Monica Bellucci Jenna Ortega Willem Dafoe …
Directed by Matt Reeves Written by Matt Reeves, Peter Craig Produced by Dylan Clark, Matt Reeves Starring Robert Pattinson Zoë Kravitz Paul Dano Jeffrey Wright John Turturro Peter Sarsgaard Andy Serkis Colin Farrell Cinematography Greig Fraser Edited by William Hoy, Tyler Nelson Music by Michael Giacchino Production companies Warner Bros. Pictures, DC Films, 6th & …