Gunn’s Superman is silly and sincere, and that’s good. It could be smarter.
Insofar as writer-director Gunn (Guardians of the Galaxy) was hired to make an definitive break from the nihilistic, grimdark Snyderverse DC movies and recover a sense of Superman as a character so decent and generous that it’s okay if he’s corny: mission accomplished.
Elio is a space adventure that Toy Story’s Andy would actually enjoy
Pixar’s Elio is the kind of movie that Lightyear should have been.
The Life of Chuck: Stephen King and Mike Flanagan on life, death, and the end of the world
“Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.” That saying from the Talmud — popularized as a tagline for Schindler’s List, in which Ben Kingsley’s Itzak Stern quotes the line — is not used in The Life of Chuck, but in my mind it might as well be.
Paddington in Peru is pleasant, underachieving nonsense
The decency and goofy sweetness of the King films continue in Paddington in Peru, though the broader moral and social themes are lost in the quest adventure plot.
SDG’s Top 10 Christmas movies list!
I do hope to get back to more regular movie writing in 2025. For now, I hope you enjoy my latest “quick win,” a tongue-in-cheek Christmas movies list I published at All Things SDG.
The Wild Robot (2024)
Watching Chris Sanders’s The Wild Robot, I felt things I haven’t felt in a very long time watching a Hollywood animated movie outside the Spider-Verse: wonder, discovery, joy.
Crisis of meaning, part 3: What lies beyond the Spider-Verse?
A question worth asking of a story, then, is: “Is there room for God in this story, in this world?”
Crisis of meaning, part 2: The lie at the end of the MCU multiverse
Sometimes it seems like the universe is sending you a message. In the MCU, the calls are coming from inside the house.
Crisis of Meaning on Infinite Earths, part 1: The multiverse and superhero movies
Is it possible to tell meaningful stories in a multiverse premise? Or does the multiverse idea tend toward nihilism?
Two things I wish George Miller had done differently in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
The Fury Road prequel is a satisfying return to the world of the demented 2015 film—but there were two missed opportunities, relating to Immortan Joe’s Wives and Furiosa’s revenge.
Recent
- Gunn’s Superman is silly and sincere, and that’s good. It could be smarter.
- Elio is a space adventure that Toy Story’s Andy would actually enjoy
- The Life of Chuck: Stephen King and Mike Flanagan on life, death, and the end of the world
- Paddington in Peru is pleasant, underachieving nonsense
- SDG’s Top 10 Christmas movies list!
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