Thirty years ago, a novel about the untold story of Oz released to the masses. And less than a decade after that, the musical adaptation (loosely) based on it premiered on Broadway and became one of the most successful productions of all time. The movie adaptation has gone through a few iterations since 2010, but finally settled with this two part adaptation, and folks, it is off to a pretty great start.
There’s the common practice, or at least it really used to be common, of taking what worked in the original, copying it, and pasting it under a number two for your sequel. That process has subsided in some ways, but Gladiator II certainly feels like one of the more prominent recent examples. It’s slightly tweaked in its presentation, but the themes, action and characters take everything you already loved about the first and delivering on more of it.
America is an interesting tapestry of experiences, to say the least, and director Sean Baker has always found an audience by portraying the precarious nature of the economic uneasiness of everyday individuals. From a down on her luck single mother on the outskirts of Orlando in The Florida Project, to a retired adult film star trying to find his place back in his life in Red Rocket, there’s something about Baker’s films that just feel far more real than most other’s directorial efforts. With Anora, he may just strike awards glory with it as well.
In the conversation concerning the best modern movie trilogies, the rebooted Planet of the Apes films is often mentioned. The combination of its rich themes and captivating narrative, not to mention their wild entertainment value, few big franchise films have reached the heights of this franchise in the 21st century. And now it’s back. After a brief hiatus from theaters since 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, director Wes Ball returns to post-apocalyptic world of intelligent apes, setting a new foundation for stories to come.
20 years later, this newest version of a now classic high school manages to capture what made the original stick so well for so long: get a good cast and have fun. Now it’s unclear where the careers of the latest cast will go, but this should serve as a great introduction to the world for many of them. Throw in some catchy melodies, in spite of some shaky lyrics, and update a few outdated story beats and you get a fun time at the movie theater, which is a rare occurrence in January.
