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Holly Hunter

Incredibles 2: Together We Rise

June 15, 2018 by J. Alan Sharrer Leave a Comment

It’s been a while.

The goal of a film critic is to encourage people to go and see high quality movies while steering people away from titles that aren’t very good. To do this, the critic watches a film, then dissects it like an expert surgeon, analyzing it for plot holes, characterization, quality of CGI, music selection, theme, and at least a hundred additional items.  With so many variables, a film can receive vastly different reviews depending on the reviewer.  And to make things even more interesting, theater-goers may feel differently than the critic when the credits roll.

In the case of director Brad Bird’s latest film Incredibles 2, I believe the two groups will agree the film is a fantastic way to spend a couple hours in an air-conditioned theater.  Whether I2 holds up to fourteen years of waiting will depend on your personal perspective.

If you recall, the end of The Incredibles found the Parr family—burly Bob (Craig T Nelson), Stretch-Armstrong-like Helen (Holly Hunter), teenager Violet (Sarah Vowell), lightning-fast Dash (Huck Milner), and baby Jack-Jack (Eli Fucile)—preparing to take on a burrowing villain called the Underminer.  In Incredibles 2, we finally get to see how the battle turns out.

It’s not pretty. At least half the town is destroyed, including cars, freeway overpasses, buildings, and at least one character’s emotional stability. As a result, the Supers are forced underground yet again (and the Parr family into living out of a hotel room). But there may be some hope in the form of Winston Deavor (Bob Odenkirk), a multi-billionaire who has been fascinated with superheroes his entire life (even singing their theme songs). He meets Bob, Helen, and Frozone (Samuel L Jackson) in order to reveal a plan to get Supers back on the good side of the general public. But in a surprise to Bob, Winston wants Helen to be the face of positive public perception, leaving him to stay home and take care of the kids.

Helen Parr (AKA Elastigirl) meets some new Supers.

Helen, in her Elastigirl outfit, immediately has to deal with a runaway monorail in New Urbem that showcases her talents as well as the new motorcycle Winston’s sister and uber-talented Evelyn (Catherine Keener) designed.  Her success leads to more Supers coming out of hiding, including Void (Sophia Bush), a superfan of Helen’s who creates interdimensional portals out of thin air. But there’s a more sinister villain than the Underminer on the loose—one that always seems to be a step ahead of Helen.  The Screenslaver hypnotizes people who are looking at video screens into obeying their commands, threatening to destroy Supers once and for all.  Helen thinks she’s got the villain figured out—but is sorely incorrect.

Meanwhile, Bob struggles mightily to be an effective full-time dad. Dash can’t figure out his math homework; Violet is an emotional mess regarding a boy; and Jack-Jack keeps Bob up at all hours while harboring multiple superpowers that are beginning to manifest themselves.  It all exhausts Bob, leaving him gruff and unshaven, and in one of the craziest scenes in the film, asleep while Jack-Jack combats his new arch enemy—a territorial raccoon.  Thankfully, the kids intervene in the form of Frozone and a diminutive yet pugnacious fashion designer named Edna Mode (Brad Bird himself).

In order to defeat the Screenslaver, it’s going to take more than Mr. Incredible and Elastigirl.  As a result, the final portion of the film is an action-packed spectacle I won’t spoil for you.  When the credits rolled, the crowd applauded and cheered loudly.

In the end, I felt Incredibles 2 was just as good as the original film.  Michael Giacchino’s score delivered the right amount of gravitas while keeping pace with the action onscreen. All the actors did well with their roles, but I’ll single out Vowell for her emotional portrayal of an uncertain, surly, yet teenage Violet who needed some form of support from her parental unit.  Animation has always been one of Pixar’s hallmarks, and Incredibles 2 is no exception.  They’ve come a long way in fourteen years with gradation, shading, water effects, and sense of speed.

“We’re all in this together.”

As for the film itself, Dash seemed to fall to the wayside on a few occasions and was a bit one-note with his performance.  Jack-Jack stole each scene he was in, but was surprisingly tame in the final sequences.  But when he and Edna were on the screen together, it was absolutely electric.  I wanted more.  The Screenslaver was a worthy villain and provided caution for each of us about devoting our lives to video screens—be they televisions, tablets, phones, or computers.  Another line that struck me was when Evelyn said, “People will trade quality for ease every time.”  Perhaps we all need to up our standards in our daily activities and not settle for second best when something better is available.

The focus of Incredibles 2, despite the superhero title, remains the family.  In many ways, I saw in the Parrs a microcosm of my own family.  Not everything in life goes the way we would like it to (and often doesn’t).  We struggle, we run away, we argue, we lose hope, but we always fall back on each other when the day is over. And in that, the Bible reminds us to “encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin’s deception” (Hebrews 3:13 HCSB).  The world can be a very evil place, so we must make sure we’re not falling captive to the issues around us while making a difference for good wherever we go. Together we rise; apart we fall.

That’s something all film critics can agree with.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Bob Odenkirk, Brad Bird, Catherine Keener, Craig T. Nelson, Disney, Elastigirl, Eli Fucile, Encouragement, Evelyn Deavor, Family, Frozone, Holly Hunter, Huck Milner, Incredibles 2, Mr. Incredible, Pixar, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Vowell, Screenslaver, Sophia Bush, superheroes, Winston Deavor

Incredibles 2 – Family Bonds

June 14, 2018 by Darrel Manson Leave a Comment

Incredibles 2 continues the story of the Parr family from The Incredibles. While it is ostensibly a superhero story, at its heart this is a film about family and especially about parenting as children go through all the changes of growing up.

As in the original, superheroes are still illegal, but with the supervillain The Underminer on the loose, the family of superheroes goes into action—rather heavy-handedly, creating a mess of the city and being relocated. Forced to live in a motel, the family tries to think about what the future will hold for them. The parents, Bob, aka Mr. Incredible (voiced by Craig T. Nelson), and Helen, aka Elastigirl (Holly Hunter), know that one of them will need to get a job to support the family. Meanwhile, their middle school aged daughter Violet (Sarah Vowell) is attracted to a boy at school, son Dash (Huckleberry Milner) struggles with his homework, and toddler Jack-Jack is a handful just in himself.

But Mr. Incredible, Elastigirl, and their friend Frozone (Samuel L. Jackson) get an offer from industrialist siblings Winston and Evelyn Deavor (Bob Odenkirk and Catherine Keener). They want to improve the world’s opinion of superheroes and make them legal again. Their plan is to use Elastigirl to stop some crimes (she does far less damage in the process that Mr. Incredible or Frozone). So Helen goes off to the big city while Bob stays home with the kids.

It turns out that Bob is a stereotypical incompetent father. He tries, but he can’t grasp new math, has no idea how to help Violet with the boys, and Jack-Jack is impossible to get down for the night. Plus, Jack-Jack now is manifesting his own superpowers—a wide array of powers.

Helen is busy doing battle with The Screenslaver, a villain who uses screen (TV, computer, whatever) to hypnotize people and have them do his will. She feels bad that she isn’t with her family, but relishes the opportunity so show off her skills. It’s not unlike the juggling of priorities that many parents experience. But when The Screenslaver gets the upper hand, Bob and the kids head off to save the day and the world (mostly it’s the kids, including Jack-Jack, that get their parents out of hot water).

What is charming about the Incredibles films is that they give us a chance to see superheroes who aren’t sullen loners, but rather people with happy family lives—happy even when the going is hard. The film, I think, allows parents to be reminded that the job they do matters.  As the diminutive designer to the superheroes Edna Mode (Brad Bird) says, “Done properly, parenting is a heroic task.” As Bob mopes about being left out while Helen is fighting crime, this is a reminder of what the really hard job is. Parents aren’t gifted with super strength and powers—only with the love they have for their children. With that, parents face years of problems but also years of joy.

For the Parrs, a family where everyone has special powers, what really ties them together is not being strong, fast, elastic, invisible, or having lasers shooting out of their eyes. The connection they have is really the bond that can exist in the families of all those who go to watch the movie together.

Let me also put in a word here for Bao, the short directed by Domee Shi (the first woman to direct a Pixar film), playing along with Incredibles 2. It is a delightful story of a woman whose handmade dumpling comes to life. We watch as she and the dumpling go through the years. The dumpling passes through all the phases of childhood and into being a young adult. It is hard for the woman to let go of her baby dumpling, but in the end, we see just how wonderful it is to see your child grow into an adult.

Photos courtesy of Walt Disney Studios

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: animated, animated short, Bob Odenkirk, Brad Bird, Catherine Keener, Craig T. Nelson, Disney, Family, Holly Hunter, Huckleberry Milner, parenting, Pixar, Samuel L. Jackson, Sarah Vowell, superheroes

The Big Sick – All The Feels

July 12, 2017 by Julie Levac Leave a Comment

Image may contain: one or more people, text and outdoor

Recently, Steve Norton and I were lucky enough to attend an advance screening of The Big Sick in Toronto, which had two surprise guests – Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily V. Gordon!

This film had already been released in select cities in the States at the time of the advance screening, and will have a wide release this weekend.  This particular independent film just keeps expanding, and it’s not difficult to see why.

Image result for the big sick

Based on the true story of Kumail Nanjiani and his wife, Emily Gordon, The Big Sick gives us a glimpse into how they met, their cultural differences and the life altering experience they went through.  Written by Nanjiani and Gordon themselves, this film was directed by Michael Showalter and produced by Judd Apatow and Barry Mendel.  Premiering at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2017, the film next won the Audience Award: Festival Favourites at South by Southwest in March.

If you’re unfamiliar with Kumail Nanjiani, he is a stand-up comedian and actor.  He’s currently on the HBO comedy series, Silicon Valley.

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This movie has a fantastic cast.  Each actor captured the essence of their character extremely well.  Zoe Kazan plays Kumail’s girlfriend, Emily Gordon.  Holly Hunter and Ray Romano are cast as Emily’s parents; and Zenobia Shroff and Anupam Kher as Kumail’s parents.

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Fun fact: We found out at the Q&A that Kumail asked his father in real life who he wanted to play him in the movie.  He said Anupam Kher, who is a big Hindi film star.  They didn’t think it was possible but asked anyway.  Anupam said yes!  And this was his 500th movie!  (Incidentally, the film legend was also in the American film, Silver Linings Playbook).

The Big Sick takes us on Kumail and Emily’s journey of courtship, including navigating their cultural differences and what their parents expect of them.  During a rocky period in their relationship (in fact, they were broken up at the time), Emily fell ill with a very serious infection.  The doctors needed to put Emily into a medically induced coma and had to operate to remove the infection.  Emily was in a coma for 8 days.  She was diagnosed with adult-onset Still’s disease which is a rare form of inflammatory arthritis that can seriously affect your organs, if left untreated.

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While Emily was in a coma, Kumail was at the hospital constantly, anxiously awaiting news of her condition and hoping she would be able to wake up soon.  During this time, Kumail had many interactions with Emily’s parents, who were not his biggest fans.  But as time went on, they got to know each other better and they realized that Kumail was in love with Emily and had nothing but the best of intentions.

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Simultaneously, Kumail’s parents, who are devoted Muslims, were trying to arrange for a Pakistani woman that Kumail could marry.  On every visit to his parent’s house, Kumail had to meet a new woman.  He was also expected to pray to Allah.  This presented a huge conflict for Kumail as he was in love with Emily and his parents didn’t even know it.  He was also struggling with his faith and trying to figure out what he believed.

This movie raises so many intense topics.  While they were very honest about these subjects, they were also very respectful.  During the Q&A we attended, Kumail spoke about the effort that was made to cover the different perspectives without making it seem like one perspective was right or wrong.  I found it to be very inclusive of different points of view.

One of the first themes I picked up on was traditionalism.  Kumail and his family are from Pakistan and he was raised Muslim.  He was expected to pray daily and have his marriage arranged by his parents.  His brother’s marriage was arranged and Kumail received encouragement from him to follow the Muslim traditions.  Kumail lived a fairly western life in that he did not wear traditional clothing, he dated non-Muslim women and he chose an unconventional career – stand-up comedy.

I also noticed some stereotypes.  For a good portion of the movie, Kumail’s family appear to portray a stereotypical Muslim family and they’re almost made to be a joke (which is not unexpected given that at the core, this is a comedy film).  But there is a scene where Kumail confronts his parents with his truth and we finally get to see a more serious side of them.  We get a sense of their struggle and what they had to go through to give their children a good life.  Kumail’s mother said she hadn’t seen, I believe, her mother in over a decade.  And his father had to completely retrain in his occupational field when he came to America.

Kumail’s confrontation to his parents was largely about his faith, or lack thereof.  He admitted that he hadn’t been praying.  He would go to the basement and play video games during prayer time.  He admitted that he did not want an arranged marriage and, in fact, had been dating an American.  He told his parents that he needed to figure out what he believed on his own.

Image result for the big sick

Another aspect was that Kumail was often judged based on the way he looks.  In the film, he’s heckled on stage with racial slurs telling him to “go back to ISIS”.  Although Kumail says this particular scene didn’t happen in real life, he has actually been racially heckled on numerous occasions.

Lastly, there is a large theme of family in this film.  There is a striking scene close to the end of the movie which happens after Kumail confronted his parents and had been kicked out of the family.  Here, he returns to his parents house and tries to pretend everything was the same as it used to be by talking about how he refused to be kicked out of the family. (After all, no matter what, ‘they’ll always be family’.)  He promises to never give up on them and refuses to let their differences ruin their relationship.  For Kumail, his family matters, despite the tensions and differences that lie between them.

We also see a different family dynamic in how Emily’s parents stuck by her every second while she was in the hospital and at home recovering.  They were very protective over her when Kumail came around as they believed he was no good for Emily.  And then when they realized that Kumail was the right mate for her, they tried to encourage that relationship.

I experienced so many emotions while watching this movie.  It was genuinely funny–and not all of the funny scenes were in the trailer which is unfortunately what happens a lot these days.  (I even almost cried a few times.)

Bottom line – it’s a great movie.  It’s witty, smart, and eye opening.  I would highly recommend it.

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Anupam Kher, Arranged Marriage, comedy, dark comedy, Emily V. Gordon, Faith, Family, Holly Hunter, Independent Film, Kumail Nanjiani, Muslim, Ray Romano, Stand-Up Comedy, Stereotype, The Big Sick, Traditionalism, Zenobia Shroff, Zoe Kazan

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