Toy Story 4 is reliably fun and unexpectedly bizarre

Woody (Tom Hanks) and Bo (Annie Potts) in Toy Story 4. Image courtesy Disney.

You can see a bit of wear and tear on the Toy Story 4. The shine from the first three films has faded a little, the story finally feeling a little worn out after years for replay. The new toys can't fully reinvigorate a franchise that has been a rock for Pixar for nearly a quarter century. But even a rundown Toy Story is a joy to play with, still functioning at a remarkably high level. And in its old age, the franchise has embraced just how blooming weird its concept is.

Toy Story 4 brings back Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), Rex (Wallace Shawn), Hamm (John Ratzenberger), and the rest of Andy's old toys, showing them integrating into life with new owner Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) and her toys Dolly (Bonnie Hunt), Trixie (Kristen Schaal), Buttercup (Jeff Garlin) and Mr. Pricklepants (Timothy Dalton). It doesn't take too long for Woody to go from favored toy to the back of the closet, replaced by new toy Forky (Tony Hale), who Bonnie create out of a spork and some garbage. An ensuing road trip results in Woody and Forky getting lost and stumbling into the seemingly nefarious Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks). Forky is captured, but Woody escapes and stumbles into his lost love Bo (Annie Potts) in the process. They are joined by a host of new toys like Giggle McDimples (Ally Maki), Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key), Bunny (Jordan Peele), and Canadian Evel Knievel knockoff Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves) in their attempts to rescue Forky and reunite with Bonnie.

If the last bit seems familiar, it's because this is effectively the same general plot the franchise has relied on for more than two decades. A toy/multiple toys get lost, stumble into an adventure and escape from folks with malicious intentions, and return to their owner before the owner relocates. At this point the toys are boomerangs, trying ever so hard to return home despite the odds being heavily against them doing so. This formula worked great for three films, but in Toy Story 4 it feels a little played out, perhaps done just one too many times to have the same zip as the earlier films. If the film falls short, its caused by this fatigue that creeps into the events. The narrative is a little shaggier, the voice acting for Andy's crew a little less excited. The problem is worth calling as the main reason why Toy Story 4 can't quite hit the highs of films one through three.

The highs of this franchise are brilliance though, so falling short of brilliance still results in a mighty fine movie. In fact, Toy Story 4 often soars thanks to an abundantly weird tone that is a logical step for the franchise. Forky is the nexus for this oddness, a character that spends the first act desperately trying to dispose of himself out of fear of his newfound self awareness. The horror of his situation is surprisingly poignant, but the film focuses more on Forky as an existential joke and as a means of bringing out the best of those around him. As a character, his naivete bounces off Woody's weariness, giving Woody a new friend and combatant. Forky's innocence is a fountain of comedy, and a sign the film is willing to look deep into its history and reveal the tragedy of its premise. 

 

Forky's presence is a recognition of just how disposable its characters truly are. They are beloved by their owners for seconds or days or years, but ultimately they become forgotten, lost to the closet or an antique store to watch the world pass them by. What Toy Story 4 tackles with is the question of what one does when one isn't needed anymore, what the meaning of life is when your purpose is ripped away from you. For Woody, who has staved off his death for years, the answer isn't quite a reboot, but a little soul searching to evaluate what he has to offer to his owner, his friends, and the world at large. It's thoughtful and contemplative and ingenious, handled with grace and a hearty sense of humor. There's always room for a joke even when one is lost in an existential drift.

I hope Toy Story 4 is the final film of this franchise. This might not be the ideal way to end things – the final moment of Toy Story 3 are nearly perfect – but it's an excellent end to Woody's story. He's rewarded for his inherent decency and growth from selfish diva to a leader of toys, and there might not be much more to want from his story than this. If this is the end, it would serve as a pretty excellent final chapter to a very excellent series.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

 

Rating: G

Run time: 100 minutes

Genre: Animated

tl;dr

What Worked: Animation, Humor, Forky, Woody's Journey

What Fell Short: Redundant Plot

What To Watch as Well: Toy Story, Toy Story 2, Toy Story 3

A most beautiful violence

Elle Fanning stars in The Neon Demon. Image courtesy Broad Green.

It’s rare to see a person walk out of a free film screening, yet the one I went to this week featured a fair number of people opting to do just about anything else than watch the rest of The Neon Demon. One woman directed a fair amount of vitriol toward the images on screen, muttering something along the lines that the film writer must be a sick person. On that end, she's absolutely correct in her assessment of director and co-writer Nicolas Winding Refn, a filmmaker whose unabashed love of retro visual artistry, violence and the peculiar make him a divisive figure in cinema. The assessment incorporates comparatively restrained pieces like Drive, Bronson and Only God Forgives; judging the man based solely on The Neon Demon would justify a diagnosis of some level of depravity or at least something amiss concerning the man's constitution.

Given all that, it is easy enough to sympathize with the woman as she left the theater in a huff, along with the others who trickled away as the film spiraled from the bizarrely obtuse into the oppressive macabre. The Neon Demon is a challenge to work through and an even more difficult film to stomach in its last 15 minutes. For those who can make it through, the experience is dizzying, dazzling and dense enough to perplex the smartest viewers. The Neon Demon is unforgettable in the most bonkers definition of the word.

The Neon Demon has the traditional trappings of a Grimm fairy tale taken to even more perverse levels. Elle Fanning stars as Jesse, an aspiring underage model who just arrived in Los Angeles to do something with her life. She’s effectively a fairy tale princess whose purity and beauty are coveted by the nefarious figures around her, most notably rival models Sarah (Abbey Lee) and Gigi (Bella Heathcote) and unseemly motel manager Hank (Keanu Reeves). The only pair of people seemingly on her side are quasi-boyfriend and good-enough guy Dean (Karl Glusman) and makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) who appear to serve as knights in shining armor if viewed from afar. Faith in these characters' valor diminishes once you peer in a little and realize one of the more notable lessons from fairy tales that trust is a dangerous thing to believe in.

There are a million places Refn could go with a premise like this. He could make it a morality tale, or about how simple it is to become disillusioned, or even a teen film about finding friendship through perseverance and goodwill. What he ends up doing is shocking and grotesque, worthy of the protestations of the woman leaving the theater. But this isn't necessarily a film built to forge an overabundance of disgust from the audience; Refn doesn't employ beautifully shot sex and violence and everything in between just because he can . He's making points with The Neon Demon about the unfairness of the modeling world, in particular the lengths women will go to retain, maintain or even steal beauty. Beauty is a fleeting thing in Refn’s world, an admirable trait that can neither be earned nor manipulated; in essence, you either are beautiful or you are not. Even those who do have it, like Fanning’s Jesse, are cursed to live in a constant state of danger from predators and jealous rivals. The Neon Demon is told through Jesse's perspective, but she's not the only one falling apart as she reaches for her dreams.

Los Angeles is a pretty perfect milieu for such a story, a place in which the divide between aesthetic perfection and blight is razor thin. Refn blurs the divide even more by twisting Los Angeles into a fun house of horrors. Mirrors capture many conversations and character interactions, sometimes portraying the more honest versions of the interactions than the ones not reflected off glass. All of those mirrors, along with Refn's love for pastel colors and otherwise intense lighting choices, utterly shakes viewers proper sense of perspective and sense of comfort. It serves as something of a mirror to the experience Jesse undergoes in her first few days in Los Angeles; a rush of emotions, sensations and overwhelming oddness crammed into a short window of existence. No matter how often Jesse protests against her innocent visage, she, like the audience, is not equipped to handle the cruel dream world Refn created.

Review: Four and a Half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 117 minutes

Genre: Drama

Ask Away

Target audience: Anyone who likes and can handle Nicolas Winding Refn films.

Take the whole family?: No. Just no.

Theater or Netflix?: This would make for a fabulous midnight film complete with a few friends and some strong spirits.

How well does Refn use the setting?: It's really a perfect fit for a man whose visual touch is his strongest talent as a director. The film is straight up gorgeous at times and always mesmerizing, with the glossy patina of the modeling world balancing perfectly against the grungy existence Elle Fanning's Jessie has before she joins the ranks of the elite. The visuals alone make this film worthwhile.

Watch this as well?: Two of Refn's more recent films, Bronson and Drive, are spectacular in their own rights and well worth checking out. The Neon Demon has a fairly similar vibe as another movie about woman being objectified in a niche industry, Black Swan.

That Darn Cat!

Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele and a kitten in "Keanu." Image courtesy Warner Bros.

What surprises most about “Keanu” from the outset is the violence. A parody of films such as “John Wick,” “New Jack City,” and a plethora of crime/revenge films from the last 25 years, the movie opens with a bloodbath and maintains its violence streak. The shock comes from the involvement of stars Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, two very funny people whose sense of humor is rooted more in absurdity, silliness, and racial analysis than showing guys get shot in the head in the middle of a drug den. Even the last bit of a joke at the end of the opening sequence sets the tone though for what's to come, a movie that will indulge in a little silliness but stays a little too close to what inspired it. “Keanu” centers on a milquetoast suburban father (Key) and his cousin (Peele), who infiltrate a local gang after the latter's cat, Keanu, is kidnapped. Doing so requires them to pretend to be Omar-esque killers, the Allentown Boys, to meet with local drug lord/cat thief Cheddar (Method Man) and his main bruiser, Hi-C (Tiffany Haddish). Despite being very far out of their element, the two manage to pull it off for awhile, even as the people they're pretending to be (also played by Key and Peele) come searching for that cat. Everything comes to a head when an additional party also fights for little Keanu as blood and bullets rain down upon everyone and Will Forte is nearly eaten by a snake.

It’s worth mentioning the eponymous cat in “Keanu” is the most adorable MacGuffin in cinematic history. That kitten is so cute it explains why a cadre of drug dealers, murderers, and people with felonious intents would go out of their way to keep/steal him. It also happens to be the most clever gag the film has to offer, a running joke that a kitten could cause mayhem in a manner befitting Helen of Troy. It's a really weird joke that fits with the sense of humor Peele and Key offered in their Comedy Central program “Key and Peele,” but it works on another level too. There's an old screenwriting trope in which writers have characters save the cat (or some other little act of kindness) as a shortcut to establish heroic tendencies, the logic being a person decent enough to protect a helpless animal can't be too bad of a person. Except, in this case, in which everyone but Peele's geeky stoner Rell Williams – whose morals loosen as the film progresses – is a villain who acts in stereotypical villainous ways. With Keanu, their actions gain a hint of sweetness to them, as their intention shifts from killing wantonly to murdering to protect the cutest kitten imaginable. They become heroic by default, effectively proving the notion that saving the cat grants some heroic qualities to the worst of people; after all, nobody who saves a cat can be an evil man.

If all of “Keanu” were as smart and clever as this central joke, and if the film had probed a little deeper with its analysis of black identity that picks up in the second half before fading , it would be one of the funniest and smartest films in recent memory. For some reason though the film skirts away from the truly scary stuff, happy to revel in wanton violence but afraid to commit to the intelligence it flashes otherwise. It takes the easy route in dealing with the crisis of manhood Key's nebbishy Clarence Goobril faces concerning his wife (played by Nia Long), following the path forged by films like the atrocious “Malibu's Most Wanted” than finding anything interesting to say. The resolution to Peele's romantic subplot with Haddish's Hi-C has a similarly convenient vibe to it, an issue worsened by an overly truncated relationship between the two. Even the humor gets a little too simple from time to time, including one sight repeated gang that is inspired heavily from the film “Neighbors.” For two guys known for comic ingenuity, that comes as a severe letdown.

But there are a few moments when “Keanu” follows through with its bizarre potential and hits some pretty great comedic highs, like a terrific drug trip Key's Clarence undergoes involving an old George Michael music video and a conversation with Keanu's namesake. It’s a strange non sequitur befitting the stars’ sense of humor, as well as an indicator of what the film could be if it was a little less accessible. Then again, it’s impossible to hate a film featuring a cat as sweet as little Keanu.

Review: Three and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 98 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Ask Away

Target audience: People who enjoyed “Key and Peele.”

Take the whole family?: Considering how many dudes get shot up, along with a few scenes at a strip club, it's best to keep the kids at home.

Theater or Netflix?: You can wait to stream it.

Seriously, how cute is that cat?: It is seriously unfair how adorable little Keanu is. Michael Keegan-Key and Jordan Peele released a video in which they evaluate cats for the role, and while the nature of it is silly, the point remains that casting the correct animal is vital to selling the ridiculous premise. Compare that to a film like “A Talking Cat,” whose cat is so uninspiring the movie uses a different cat on its cover.

Watch this as well?: Visit Youtube to catch some clips from “Key and Peele.” Some of the highlights include the “East/West College Bowl” shorts, “Continental Breakfast,” “Substitute Teacher,” and, my favorite because of how bonkers the entire premise is, “Aerobics Meltdown.”