🎬 “You haven’t worked a day in your life. How could you be exhausted?”

I got a digital advance copy of the book A is for Auteur this week, which is being published by the makers of the party game Cinephile. It’s nominally a children’s alphabet book — e.g. “C is for Coppola (Francis Ford): Luca Brasi sleeps with fishes, a horse head as warning. Apocalypse redux, the smell of napalm in the morning.” However, it’s also a coffee table book for adults, and I had a lot of fun looking at the delightfully detailed illustrations, trying to identify the movies being referenced. Thanks to Cory at Cinephile for sharing that in advance!

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Moana is one of my favorite Disney movies, period. The animation is beautiful, the songs are catchy, and the story is heartfelt without being sappy, and familiar without being contrived.

If you missed this one when it came out in late 2016 — a time when I really needed a comforting movie — the story is about a young woman (Auli'i Cravalho), who’s chosen to find the banished demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) and enlist his help to save her island. After leaving the theater, I tweeted that her adventure is reminiscent of a Legend of Zelda video game, and I stand by that; this movie captures the exact same type of wonder those games instill.

Moana herself is an impressive, memorable character, so much so that I wish the film didn’t tongue-in-cheekily describe her as a “princess”; so many Disney princesses are so much less interesting that it feels like lampshading — you’re still putting her in this box even if you’re doing it with a meta wink. And the songs, all of which were written or co-written by Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda while he was still on Broadway, are superb.

I definitely recommend this movie, and specifically I demand you watch it on a very large screen in HD. Singing along is optional. ★★★★½

Moana is currently streaming on Disney+.

Along with Moana, I included Men in Black on my list of comfy movies last week, and for good reason: It’s a creative, fun sci-fi adventure that doesn’t take itself too seriously, and asks the audience to do the same.

I’ve unintentionally been on a run of Will Smith’s greatest hits recently, catching this after Enemy of the State and Independence Day; here, as in those movies, his skill as a charismatic everyman uplifts even the most dubious surrounding material.

Smith plays J, a new recruit to a secret force of alien-tracking secret agents, and Tommy Lee Jones plays his grouchy mentor, K. The two have classic buddy cop chemistry, and Vincent D’Onfrio is terrifyingly good as an evil alien possessing a corpse; his physical performance here is incredible and disturbing.

On the downside, the romantic interest for J is barely a character, and despite the generally chill stakes of the film, I wish the climactic showdown were a little more tense. But the whole movie is clever enough that I’d say it holds up. Recommended. ★★★½

I watched Men in Black on Blu-Ray, but it’s currently streaming on Starz, DirecTV, and Sling TV.

I hadn’t revisited the original Iron Man in several years, but had always held it up in my mind as being one of the best Marvel movies. As the first entry in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, it certainly is an important movie, both for that series and movies as a whole in the 21st century, but I was less thrilled than consistently entertained on this viewing.

There’s a lot that works: Robert Downey Jr. as the brilliant asshole billionaire Tony Stark, the (relatively) small scope of the action, and the montage of Stark improving his suit — culminating in a risky and exhilarating first flight — are all excellent. However, the villain is dull and predictable, and the love interest Pepper Potts (played by Gwyneth Paltrow) is hit or miss; I love when Paltrow and Downey are spar like characters in a screwball comedy, but in every other scene the screenwriters don’t seem to know what to do with her.

Marvel movies would have higher highs after this one, and lower lows, but all in all I still had a good enough time with Iron Man that I’d recommend it. ★★★½

Iron Man is currently streaming on Disney+.

Wes Anderson’s first feature-length film, Bottle Rocket, is a story about an idiot and his dumber friends trying to become criminal masterminds. It’s a great premise, and baby-faced acting brothers Luke and Owen Wilson strike the right mix of naïveté and hubris to make their characters likable while also doomed to failure.

Although this film has a good soundtrack and introduces a now-famous costume — the all-yellow jumpsuit Owen Wilson’s character adopts with gusto — Wes Anderson’s iconic directorial style had yet to fully solidify, and the freshmanity of the project is evident, especially in an unconvincing romantic subplot. The final heist scene has several funny moments, but little narrative momentum, and I found myself wishing this indie film from a promising team had had enough budget to do something more ambitious.

There’s enough here that I can recommend Bottle Rocket, although later Anderson works like Moonrise Kingdom and Isle of Dogs are much more my jam. ★★★½

I bought Bottle Rocket on Amazon, but it’s currently streaming on Mubi.

(new additions in bold)