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The Unearthly (1957, Directed by Boris Petroff) English 3

Starring John Carradine, Myron Healey, Allison Hayes, Tor Johnson, Sally Todd

-3-

The Unearthly may be the best film featured on the cult t.v series, Mystery Science Theater, but that’s hardly a recommendation. It actually means that, while still not being good, it also lacks the requisite trash value to be so bad it’s good. It’s not entertaining. The premise is promising. A mad scientist played by John Carradine tests out his theories about curing death on his distressed patients. A fugitive, Mark Houston (Healey), wanders into this house of horrors and unearths its secret failed experiements. Wittier dialogue, more colorful characters, and a director with any talent for suspense could make The Unearthly a worthwhile B movie. The ingredients are there. The cook was no good. Instead, it’s ample fodder for the crew on MST3 to lampoon. “My Dinner with Andre had more locations.”

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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L.A Confidential (1997, Directed by Curtis Hanson) English 10

Starring Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Danny Devito, Kim Basinger, David Strathairn, James Cromwell, Graham Beckel, Simon Baker, Ron Rifkin

-10-

Rollo Tomasi

Curtis Hanson’s 1997 film, based on James Ellroy’s novel, has many elements usually found in a bad adaptation: bastardized plot, watered-down themes (especially the racist qualities of the protagonists), and a cast that veers rather strongly from their original character descriptions , including an Australian and a New Zealander playing American cops in key roles. It’s a credit to the filmmakers, or truly everyone involved- the writers, the cinematographer, the stars, composer Jerry Goldsmith, who did the terrific score-that instead of feeling like a hack adaptation, L.A Confidential feels like a perfect movie; perfectly paced, perfectly performed, and perfectly filmed. Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, and Guy Pearce play three disparate cops, at odds mostly, who all get swept up from different angles into a massive crime plot involving prostitution, police corruption, heroin, and Mickey Cohen. Kim Basinger merges two Hollywood clichés (hooker with the heart of gold and the classic femme fatale) in her role as Lynn Bracken, but makes the part vital, and reminds us why we like the clichés.  The plot, as it is, seems as complex and mystifying as any ever portrayed on screen, and remembering that it’s working with maybe a third of the book begs the question of how I ever seemed to understand the book. In any case, those tough choices, the decision to go for Ellroy’s spirit rather than exact faithfullness, were judicious, and the resulting film is a major triumph.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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Welcome to Licorice-Rub.

Short reviews are organized by what decade they were released. Film essays include personal topics revolving around film, and Great Films are long-form reviews mainly focused on films that I believe are underrated or under appreciated. Most drawings are amateur, done myself, while some were given to me by friends or students.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

-Drawings by Jung Hee-Yun, Kim Min-Seo, Ji Suna, Lee Do-Hyun, and Jung Min-Gyo

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Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018, Directed by Rich Moore, Phil Johnston) English 5

Voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Gal Gadot, Bill Hader, Alan Tudyk, Taraji P. Henson, Alfred Molina, Ed O’Neill, Jane lynch

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We are going to the internet!

There are some nice ideas in Ralph Breaks the Internet, sequel to 2012’s Wreck-it-Ralph. It explores friendship, insecurity, and visually articulates what it might look like inside the internet in an appealing way. However, for all of its cleverness, there aren’t many laughs to be found, and the story never pulled me in completely at any point. This new Ralph resembles Homer’s Odyssey in structure: kind of wandering, with no apparent villain, and slow to reach its point. I was slightly bored for much of the running time. The plot is rather simple: Vanellope (Silverman) and the gang at Sugar Rush are in danger of becoming homeless as their game is close to being shut down. Their only hope is that the arcade set gets a new wheel to replace the broken one, so the game can go on, and the only way to get a new wheel is for Ralph and Vanellope to enter the internet and find one. There’s not a lack of action. Plenty happens. The animation is vibrant. I just never truly cared.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

-Drawing by Lee Do Hyeon-

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Monster’s University (2013, Directed by Dan Scanlon) English 7

Voices of John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Charlie Day, John Krasinski, Alfred Molina, Helen Mirren, Sean Hayes, Steve Buscemi, Nathan Fillion

-7-

I act scary, Mike. But most of the time, I’m terrified.

How come you never told me that before?

Because we weren’t friends before.

James P. Sullivan, or “Sully (Goodman),” and Mike Wazowski (Crystal), two beloved characters from Monsters Inc., return, only instead of a sequel, which many hoped for with the potential to see a grown-up “Boo,” their return to film is a prequel. Set in their formative college years, the two meet as Freshman, immediately hostile towards one another. Sully is a bit of a jerk, cocky and over-reliant on the weight his family name carries. Mike is perhaps too serious. In any case, they attempt to make it into Monster’s University’s top scare program, but are unfairly failed by the school’s tough dean, Hardscrabble (Mirren). Mike makes a wager with Hardscrabble that gives him and Sully a second chance, but they’ll have to win the brutally competitive “scare games” with a team full of have-nots. Though glossy and generic, the film’s college campus and school antics are fun and the premise makes for solid light entertainment, but Monster’s Inc was something more. It had substance and it was surprising. Monsters University suffers from common prequel problems in that because we know how things end up, it takes much of the suspense away in getting there.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

-Drawing by Jung Min-Gyo-

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The Incredibles 2 (2018, Directed by Brad Bird) English 7

Voices of Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, Samuel L. Jackson, Isabella Rossellini, Sarah Vowell, John Ratzenberger, Jonathan Banks

-7-

I missed Jack-Jack’s FIRST POWER!

Actually you missed his first SEVENTEEN.

The Parr family, alias The Incredibles, are back. Fourteen years, four pretty undistinguished Pixar sequels later, and we finally got The Incredibles 2. There’s the father, Bob or Mr. Incredible(voiced by Nelson), with super strength, the mother, Helen or Elastigirl (voiced by Holly Hunter), who can stretch to insane lengths, oldest child, Violet (voiced by Sarah Vowell) who can turn invisible and create force fields, son, Dash (now voiced by Huck Milner), who has extraordinary speed, and the infant, Jack-Jack, whose powers were only hinted at in the first film. The good thing about animation is that all that lapsed time isn’t a problem. Writer and director Brad Bird can pick up right where he left off, unburdened by the effects of time on his actors, able to capably portray the Parr family just as we remember them from the first film. So that’s what Bird does. The Incredibles 2 starts where the first film ends. Dash finished his race, Violet asked out a boy, and a new super villain, calling himself the Underminer, showed up to spring the heroic family back into action. This ending seemed like a perfect setup for another installment, but as The Incredibles 2 plays out, the Underminer proves to be only a small part of the whole. The important part of the scene is that The Underminer gets away, the Parr family cause a lot of damage protecting people, and the mandate outlawing superheroes sees the protagonists relocated once again, this time to a shabby motel where Bob contemplates returning to his soul-deadening insurance job. Fortunately, their good deed in fighting The Underminer was not completely in vain as it caught the eye of billionaire, Winston Deaver (voiced by Bob Odenkirk), who has very personal reasons for wanting to bring superheroes back. He believes the Parr family are the key. The only thing is, he thinks Elastigirl is the better choice as the face of his plan, throwing Bob for a loop. This go-around, Helen is out fighting crime while Bob stays home with the kids, dealing with Violet’s lovesick teen angst, Dash’s complicated homework, and Jack-Jack’s ever-growing list of abilities, while a larger plot begins to form slowly involving a masked figure known as The Screenslaver. The over-arching plot, due to the supervillain of the piece, is good, not great. It’s the one thing holding the film back from being in line with its predecessor. The villain’s secret identity with all of the red herrings has been done before, to the point that we can see the film’s third act coming a mile away. This ends up not being a major detractor since Incredibles was always best as family commentary, genre satire, and situational comedy. All of this remains intact. Jack-Jack steals the show with one of the film’s chief pleasures being his expansive roster of powers slowly being revealed throughout the movie. I won’t spoil them here. The great scene-stealer from the first Incredibles, Edna Mode (voiced by Brad Bird himself) returns and has a wonderful scene with the infant Parr. The action sequences and art design in The Incredibles 2 are gorgeous. We’re reminded that the possibilities in animation are endless, and Brad Bird pushes the envelope with every new film. Even without living up to the ridiculous heights of the first movie, The Incredibles 2 is a fantastic superhero film.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

-Drawing by Jung Soo-Hyeon-

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The Princess and the Frog (2009, Directed by Ron Clements and John Musker) English Great Film

Voices of Anika Noni Rose, Bruno Campos, Keith David, Jim Cummings, Jennifer Lewis, John Goodman, Michael Leon Wooley, Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard

-Great Film-

I would do it. I would kiss a frog. I would kiss a hundred frogs if I could marry a prince and be a princess.

Traditional animation is a thing of the past for Walt Disney Animation Studios. The lovely, hand-drawn, two-dimensional work that made Disney famous (Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Cinderella) has given way to three-dimensional computer animation, first achieved by Pixar (Toy Story), now taken up by just about every American animation studio including Disney itself. Many years ago now, around Christmas, saw the last time Disney released a big-budget 2-D animated flick, The Princess and the Frog, with the more modest release of Winnie the Pooh following 2 years later. Neither film proved a hit financially, though both were critically acclaimed. In the meantime, the computer-animated Disney films Tangled (2010), Wreck-it-Ralph (2012), Frozen (2013), etc., each made at least $450 million worldwide, with Frozen going over a billion on its way to becoming the second-highest-grossing animated film of all-time (not adjusted for inflation). Does this demonstrate that people aren’t drawn to 2-D animation anymore? Has 2-D animation become like black-and-white photography? I don’t think so, though it’s hard to prove. I know it’s different cultures and demographics, but anime is more popular than ever. Your Name made over $350 million worldwide, and I’ve never heard a kid complain about the animation of Snow White or Pinocchio or The Lion King the way most kids will complain if you try to get them to watch black-and-white classics. So traditional animation doesn’t appear to be “antiquated” in the same way as black-and-white filming.  It’s difficult to put my finger on just what did hold The Princess and the Frog back from becoming the global hit most other Disney princess movies are and I suspect the easy answers aren’t any good. For one thing, traditional animation was floundering for years before The Princess and the Frog. Atlantis, Treasure Planet, Brother Bear, and Home on the Range had varying levels of success but I think it’s safe to say that each of them was disappointing in some way (either commercially or critically). Maybe it’s a case of guilt by association. The Princess and the Frog looks like those movies. Tangled is a huge success. Let’s stop making movies that look like the former and emulate the latter. Whatever the case, it’s a shame that The Princess and the Frog isn’t more appreciated or even seen, because it’s quite a film. It’s not on the level of Disney’s very best but I’d place it on that very next tier which is still pretty special. The film begins with a quick glimpse at the modest but happy childhood of heroine, Tatiana (voiced by Rose), and then we flash forward many years to see her as a hard-working adult in 1920’s New Orleans trying to save up enough money to own a restaurant. Tatiana is black, making her the first black Disney princess, so from the very first minute, before we know if the film is any good, we know it’s important, and we hope that it’s good and worthy. I say Tatiana is a good role model for anyone watching. She doesn’t have time for much fun, as she sings in the film’s best song “Almost There,” but she’s not a shrew either. Then there is Prince Naveen (voiced by Campos), a cad, recently cut off from his parent’s money. He arrives in New Orleans with two choices: get a job or marry someone rich. His rogue heart is set on marrying someone rich. It’s noteworthy to me, and it’s one of my few quibbles with the movie, that Naveen is ethnically ambiguous, which is fine, but I really would have preferred a black prince. There’s some good to be found in portraying love between a mixed couple, certainly, but there are so few positive depictions of black males in the media in general that I believe an opportunity was missed. Anyways, Naveen gets mixed up with a local voodoo practitioner named Dr. Facilier (voiced by Keith David and it’s a great voice as anyone who’s seen Gargoyles will remember) and ends up a frog. If he doesn’t kiss a princess by a specific time, he’ll remain a frog for the rest of his life. Finding Tatiana at a costume party and mistaking her for a princess thanks to her costume, he convinces her to kiss him, but she winds up a frog as well. The two travel across the bayou looking for Madame Odie (voiced by Lewis), who might be there only chance at changing back.

As the first attempt by Disney to feature black characters in the lead, The Princess and the Frog is open to intense scrutiny. Maybe it suffered a bit from that, but most of what I’ve heard in the form of criticism is nonsense. I recall Paul Mooney complaining that Tatiana spends most of the film’s runtime as a frog. I say who cares, though that’s not much of a counter-argument. Also, there were questions about the Disney princess formula running out of steam. Perhaps The Princess and the Frog is too traditional. It’s classic formula through and through: princess, prince, music, villain, colorful side characters, animals. I love the formula and don’t think the formula will ever truly die. Tangled came out a year later and resurrected it while Frozen put to rest the idea of stopping Disney princess films for good. I don’t know why but The Princess and the Frog failed to surprise people and somehow Tangled and Frozen gave the impression of something completely new, despite all following that same formula. I happen to think The Princess and the Frog is better than Frozen while Tangled is the best of the three. The Princess and the Frog is one of the most beautifully animated films Disney’s ever produced. It has a cast full of great characters including a standout villain, great music by Randy Newman, and a fun story to get you from the opening credits to happily-ever-after. I suppose it will just have to settle for being underrated.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

-Drawing by Yang Do-Heon-

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Soul (2020, Directed by Pete Docter) English 5

Voices of Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade, Daveed Diggs, Donnell Rawlings, Graham Norton, Questlove, Patricia Rashad, Angela Bassett

-5-

“There’s nothing like music to relieve the soul and uplift it.”

Joe Gardner (Foxx) was destined to be a jazz pianist. That’s his purpose. It’s everything he ever wanted. In the meantime, he works as a part-time music teacher at a public school and feels pressured by his imposing mother to move on from his dreams. After finally getting the opportunity of a lifetime, a spur-of-the-moment gig playing with Dorothea Williams (Bassett), Joe falls through a manhole to his death and lands in “the Great Beyond.” Desperate to return to Earth in time for the show, he accepts the role of mentor in which he’s charged with inspiring the obstinate, unborn soul known simply as 22 (Fey) who helps him plot his way back to the land of the living. Joe’s earthly life is rendered beautifully, significant as Pixar’s first foray into depicting a black protagonist. The everyday details from Joe’s local barbershop to his posture on the piano also mark a move for Pixar into an impressive layer of realism and a willingness by them to play around with different art styles. In this film alone, they use a completely different style for Joe’s life and his afterlife, but it’s the afterlife sequences that left me bored and disappointed. The afterlife being an abstract notion, Pixar had the chance to go in any number of directions with its ideas. The final result is a pretty limited, bland conception for a whale of an idea. It’s all black-and-white stick figures with funny accents, a story closely resembling Heaven Can Wait (or Here Comes Mr. Jordan), and afterlife scenes that are a drag. There’s such a thing as being well-done and boring at the same time.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

-Drawing by Jo Ha-Eum-

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Up (2009, Directed by Pete Docter) English 7

Voices of Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, Delroy Lindo, John Ratzenberger, Jordan Nagai

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Adventure is out there!

Films featuring elderly protagonists are few and far between, and animated films featuring elderly protagonists are pretty much non-existant, outside of Pixar’s 2009 offering, Up (Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle was a young woman cursed with an old woman’s body). Up is a combination of a lot of unique, inspired ideas- a house flying across the world, balloons holding it up, a dog that can talk, a boy ranger sidekick-but at its heart, the best aspect of the film, is a regretful widower fulfilling a promise he made to his wife. The opening sequence covers our hero, Carl, and his wife, Ellie, all the way from their first meeting as precocious children to their final moments together as she dies in a hospital. It’s an incredibly moving scene. Unfortunately the rest of the film isn’t at the same level. Carl and Russell’s adventure are vivid and beautiful, but aren’t as interesting as the opening act. Their exploits in Paradise Falls drag a bit.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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Eyes Wide Shut (1999, Directed by Stanley Kubrick) English 9

Starring Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Sydney Pollack, Todd Field, Marie Richardson, Sky Du Mont, Vinessa Shaw, Alan Cumming, Leelee Sobieski, Thomas Gibson, Rade Šerbedžija

-9-

Listen, Bill. Nobody killed anybody. Someone died. It happens all the time. Life goes on. It always does, until it doesn’t. But you know that, don’t you?

Working through random reviews on the internet, I laughed at one viewer’s comment that Eyes Wide Shut has meaning, it’s just hard to find. I suppose that’s a positive critique. I, on the other hand, do not find Eyes Wide Shut especially deep or thoughtful; in the same way that I don’t find dreams very meaningful. Eyes Wide Shut is dream-logic stretched over 2 1/2 hours. Every woman is attractive, and around every corner seems to be the promise of sex or nightmare. Tom Cruise plays Dr. Bill Hartford. Handsome, wealthy, successful, Bill is surrounded by temptation; every woman in his life is available to him. When his wife, Alice (Kidman), admits to lusting after another man, Bill wanders out into the night seeking retribution or maybe just feeling free for the first time to do what he wants. He meets a handful of strange people throughout the night, ultimately ending up at the film’s infamous, mysterious orgy party for the elite where each party guest wears Venetian masks. Eyes Wide Shut is a great film, again, not because it’s especially thoughtful but because it appeals to my sensibilities. I love the night, mystery, missing women, shadows, cloak and dagger, etc. It’s why I’m a fan of Murakami. Eyes Wide Shut is a suspenseful film without being very tense. It’s almost entirely about anticipation; with muted pay-off. That’s also like a dream. Pursuit without reward, suspense without consequences (for the main character). There’s very little point in asking logical questions. It’s also a brilliant conclusion to Stanley Kubrick’s career.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-