Early Reviews: Jojo Rabbit, Knives Out, The Lighthouse
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Wondering what critics are saying about the hottest films right now? Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be reviewing a few of the movies that we got to see at TIFF 2019!
After the hugely successful 2018 documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”, one would think that the new biographical film about the icon Mister Rogers would be unnecessary. Luckily, director Marielle Heller gives at least 100 reasons why Rogers’ story should be retold for years to come. Tom Hanks (the nicest man in Hollywood) is cast as Rogers (the nicest man anywhere), and pulls in a performance that really gets to the heart of what makes the children’s show host a true icon of pop culture.
The film itself is a cathartic experience, loosely adapting the story of journalist Tom Junod (seen in the movie as Lloyd Vogel, played by Matthew Rhys), a man who refuses to confront the troubles in his life, including his toxic relationship with his father. Researching the saintly figure in Mister Rogers, Vogel is forced to see all of his problems in a different light, which makes the movie feel very much like a therapy session with Rogers himself.
It may be a little tough to talk about this one, mostly because we’re not exactly sure what we even watched, but for all you fans of Robert Eggers’ 2015 horror film “The Witch”, “The Lighthouse” is even more of the same nightmarish period piece magic. This time, Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe drive the entirety of the film as lighthouse keepers at each others’ throats, and once you get past the sometimes hard to understand sailor dialect that is featured throughout the film, “The Lighthouse” is a hypnotic roller coaster of insane performances and stunning cinematography.
Eggers is a master of creating an authentic setting, making it hard to believe that this movie was shot in 2018 and not from a previous era. Horror fans will be pleased with some of the film’s more psychological scares, and the film’s ending is sure to cause debate for years to come (be on the lookout for WatchMojo’s ending explained video around the movie’s wide release).
Taking cues from the likes of Agatha Christie and Clue: The Movie, Rian Johnson’s new ensemble murder mystery film is an absolute must see. Featuring stars like Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and Chris Evans, just to name a few, seeing so many great performances on screen together brings the film up to a level of fun that we really haven’t seen in quite some time. The screenplay, written by Johnson himself, is clever and inventive, featuring twist and turns you certainly won’t see coming, including turning the idea of a murder mystery on its head itself.
With a lot of heart and even more laugh out loud humor, Knives Out is a great addition to the catalogue of whodunits throughout cinema history.
No, this one doesn’t have anything to do with that anime. Taika Watiti has made a name for himself in his native New Zealand, as well as within the MCU, but now he’s back with a new satire that’s edgy in all the right ways, and will most likely be the fall’s most talked about movie. Taika casts himself as Hitler, the imaginary best friend of a young boy named Jojo. When the Hitler Youth comes face to face with a Jewish girl hiding in his attic, he’s forced to confront the environment he’s been brought up under.
The movie never really goes all in on utilizing its shocking premise, which ends up being one of the movie’s downsides. Taika is somehow underused to the point where we wondered why he was used as a selling point. That being said, the scenes where he does appear are laugh out loud funny. What will end up selling the movie to skeptics however, are the performances from all the child actors. They bring a lot of heart to the film and solidify the tone to make Jojo Rabbit a decently enjoyable time.
Nick Cage as an alpaca farmer? Color us interested! At least we were before our screening of Color Out of Space. Don’t get us wrong, there’s actually a few things Richard Stanley’s long awaited new sci-fi horror does right, but it’s a bit of a mess getting there. Adapted from a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, Color Out of Space tells the story of a family living on a farm in Massachusetts, who begin to notice strange occurrences after a glowing pink meteorite lands on their property.
Color Out of Space could have gone one of two ways, it would either follow in the Nick Cage fare that we got to see in Mandy, or it would become destined to get lost in time with some of Cage’s most recent straight to DVD films. Somehow, this new movie falls somewhere in the middle, offering just enough unique sci-fi body horror craziness and Nick Cage meme-able moments, while also falling flat in a lot of the more dramatic scenes. In other words, it’s tonally a mess, but it’s all in all worth it for the crescendo of an ending that the movie ends on.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
After the hugely successful 2018 documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”, one would think that the new biographical film about the icon Mister Rogers would be unnecessary. Luckily, director Marielle Heller gives at least 100 reasons why Rogers’ story should be retold for years to come. Tom Hanks (the nicest man in Hollywood) is cast as Rogers (the nicest man anywhere), and pulls in a performance that really gets to the heart of what makes the children’s show host a true icon of pop culture.
The film itself is a cathartic experience, loosely adapting the story of journalist Tom Junod (seen in the movie as Lloyd Vogel, played by Matthew Rhys), a man who refuses to confront the troubles in his life, including his toxic relationship with his father. Researching the saintly figure in Mister Rogers, Vogel is forced to see all of his problems in a different light, which makes the movie feel very much like a therapy session with Rogers himself.
The Lighthouse
It may be a little tough to talk about this one, mostly because we’re not exactly sure what we even watched, but for all you fans of Robert Eggers’ 2015 horror film “The Witch”, “The Lighthouse” is even more of the same nightmarish period piece magic. This time, Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe drive the entirety of the film as lighthouse keepers at each others’ throats, and once you get past the sometimes hard to understand sailor dialect that is featured throughout the film, “The Lighthouse” is a hypnotic roller coaster of insane performances and stunning cinematography.
Eggers is a master of creating an authentic setting, making it hard to believe that this movie was shot in 2018 and not from a previous era. Horror fans will be pleased with some of the film’s more psychological scares, and the film’s ending is sure to cause debate for years to come (be on the lookout for WatchMojo’s ending explained video around the movie’s wide release).
Knives Out
Taking cues from the likes of Agatha Christie and Clue: The Movie, Rian Johnson’s new ensemble murder mystery film is an absolute must see. Featuring stars like Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette and Chris Evans, just to name a few, seeing so many great performances on screen together brings the film up to a level of fun that we really haven’t seen in quite some time. The screenplay, written by Johnson himself, is clever and inventive, featuring twist and turns you certainly won’t see coming, including turning the idea of a murder mystery on its head itself.
With a lot of heart and even more laugh out loud humor, Knives Out is a great addition to the catalogue of whodunits throughout cinema history.
Jojo Rabbit
No, this one doesn’t have anything to do with that anime. Taika Watiti has made a name for himself in his native New Zealand, as well as within the MCU, but now he’s back with a new satire that’s edgy in all the right ways, and will most likely be the fall’s most talked about movie. Taika casts himself as Hitler, the imaginary best friend of a young boy named Jojo. When the Hitler Youth comes face to face with a Jewish girl hiding in his attic, he’s forced to confront the environment he’s been brought up under.
The movie never really goes all in on utilizing its shocking premise, which ends up being one of the movie’s downsides. Taika is somehow underused to the point where we wondered why he was used as a selling point. That being said, the scenes where he does appear are laugh out loud funny. What will end up selling the movie to skeptics however, are the performances from all the child actors. They bring a lot of heart to the film and solidify the tone to make Jojo Rabbit a decently enjoyable time.
Color Out of Space
Nick Cage as an alpaca farmer? Color us interested! At least we were before our screening of Color Out of Space. Don’t get us wrong, there’s actually a few things Richard Stanley’s long awaited new sci-fi horror does right, but it’s a bit of a mess getting there. Adapted from a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, Color Out of Space tells the story of a family living on a farm in Massachusetts, who begin to notice strange occurrences after a glowing pink meteorite lands on their property.
Color Out of Space could have gone one of two ways, it would either follow in the Nick Cage fare that we got to see in Mandy, or it would become destined to get lost in time with some of Cage’s most recent straight to DVD films. Somehow, this new movie falls somewhere in the middle, offering just enough unique sci-fi body horror craziness and Nick Cage meme-able moments, while also falling flat in a lot of the more dramatic scenes. In other words, it’s tonally a mess, but it’s all in all worth it for the crescendo of an ending that the movie ends on.
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