Toy Story 4

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Josh Cooley
Screenplay:  Andrew Stanton and Stephany Folsom, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Josh Cooley, Valerie LaPointe, Rashida Jones, Will McCormack, Martin Hynes and Stephany Folsom
Starring:  Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Annie Potts, Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Madeleine McGraw, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves
Running Time:  96 minutes
Genre:  Animation, comedy

Toys Woody (Hanks), Buzz Lightyear (Allen) and their friends have been donated by former owner Andy, to a little girl named Bonnie (McGraw).  Increasingly neglected by Bonnie, Woody still accompanies her on her first day of kindergarten, and watches her fashions some items of garbage, into a bipedal spork that she calls "Forky" (Hale).  Like the other toys, Forky is alive, but believes himself to be trash.  Bonnie and her family head out on a road trip, with Woody constantly trying to stop Forky throwing himself into trash. Separated from Bonnie, her family and their friends, Woody tries to convince Forky of how much Bonnie loves him.  Trailing the family RV through a small town, Woody thinks that his friend Bo Peep (Potts) is in an antique store, however when they enter, they encounter the seemingly friendly Gabby Gabby (Hendricks), who nevertheless has her own agenda.

Released in 1995, the original Toy Story was groundbreaking as the first completely computer-animated feature film, but it was more than just a special effects showcase, being both funny and heartwarming.  Over the years, it has become a beloved franchise for both children and adults .  This outing manages to break the law of diminishing returns, being funny, action packed and surprisingly emotional, as well as being beautifully animated.  Fans of the series will enjoy being reacquainted with familiar characters as well as some delightful new faces.   It sticks to the formula of the previous films where the toys are separated and then have to be rescued by their friends.  Due to the size and fragility of the toys, the ordinary outside world becomes a hostile landscape with danger lurking around every corner.  The film also continues the philosophical themes of the series where the toys have to accept their nature and the transitory nature of their existence, where they invest so much love and loyalty in their owners, only to eventually be discarded as the child grows up.  While it is not as good as Toy Story 2 (1999) this is still a great family film which will appeal to both adults and children. 

Forky and Woody in Toy Story 4

Us

Year of Release:  2019
Director:  Jordan Peele
Screenplay:  Jordan Peele
Starring:  Lupita Nyong'o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Madison Curry, Tim Heidecker, Elisabeth Moss
Running Time:  116 minutes
Genre:  Horror

The Wilson family, Adelaide (Nyong'o) and Gabe (Duke) and their children Zora (Joseph) and Jason (Alex), head out on vacation to their beach house.  Adelaide doesn't like the beach due to something that happened to her as a child.  She notices that their seem to be an unusual number of strange coincidences surrounding them.  One night their house is invaded by another family, who are their exact doubles. 

Jordan Peele made a huge splash with his debut feature, the multi-award winning Get Out (2017), and he follows it up with another disturbing look at modern-day America through the lens of horror.  Us is more of a straightforward horror film than Get Out, and it is genuinely scary and funny.  While it doesn't have as much of an overt satirical bite and social commentary as Get Out it is still there as subtext.  The idea of the doppelganger is a scary one and this is an interesting variation on the "evil double" theme.  The film is overlong and it does slow down with an exposition heavy climax, sometimes it feels like an extended Twilight Zone episode (Peele has acknowledged the 1960 Twilight Zone episode "Mirror Image" as an inspiration).  The cast are excellent in dual roles.  The film takes it's time building up the characters and their personalities and relationships and so you care about them.  You're interested in spending time with these people, even before the horror elements kick off. 

Lupita Nyong'o in Us

Get Out

Year of Release:  2017

Director:  Jordan Peele

Screenplay:  Jordan Peele 

Starring:  Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Catherine Keener, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, LaKeith Stanfield, Lil Rey Howry, 

Running Time:  103 minutes

Genre:  Horror, thriller

This is possibly one of the most important horror films of the last thirty years.  Chris (Kaluuya) is a photographer who has a good relationship with his white girlfriend Rose Armitage (Williams).  However, Chris is about to head up to the suburbs to meet Rose's parents for the first time, and is worried that she hasn't told them that he is black.  Rose's parents, Dean (Whitford) and Missy (Keener), seem pleasant enough, if a little too eager to prove that they are open-minded liberals, but Chris can't help but detect undercurrents of hostility.  To make things even more uncomfortable, the only people of colour around are the family's servants, Walter (Marcus Henderson) and Georgina (Betty Gabriel).  Are the Armitages clueless and insensitive, but essentially well-meaning?  Are they closet racists?  Are is there something stranger and even more sinister going on?

The film sets up a situation that is awkward enough, and all too relateable to many of us, that of meeting our significant other's parents and family for the first time.  To make matters more complex they are a mixed race couple.  Chris puts up with a lot of low-level awkwardness right form the start, which may just be well-meaning white liberals who don't really mean any harm, or could be much worse.  with every interaction you can see him having to decode the hidden subtexts.  However this is a horror film, and writer/director Jordan Peele (one half of comedy duo Key and Peele) obviously knows his horror onions, and the horror/thriller elements work well, particularly in the final third, where the horror elements really kick off, even if the satirical elements don't always gel as well. Horror films have always taken on the preoccupations and fears of the time and place that they were made, but racial issues have been noticeable by their absence.  This is a film of it's time and is important viewing.

  

Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out