Tag Archives: Coming of Age

Regretting You – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A delightfully funny film filled with earnest emotion.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Standing at the town limits.

Setting the Scene

In my line of work, you tend to get a good sense of a film before you have even walked into a cinema, that is because so much of it gets released in the marketing process. However, today we have one of those gems that I knew nothing about before walking in, other than what you could glean from the theatrical poster. So, I could be completely surprised by the fun yet emotional romp I was about to watch.  
 
So, to set the scene, back in the day when they were teenagers, Morgan (Allison Williams), her sister Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), and their boyfriends Chris (Scott Eastwood) and Jonah (Dave Franco) were inseparable. But when Morgan gets accidentally pregnant, she and Chris build a life together. Seventeen years later, Jonah has popped back into Jenny’s life after being away for over a decade, and they now have a new baby, Elijah (Ryan Conner Simmons/ William Burnham Simmons). Also, Morgan and Chris’ baby Clara (Mckenna Grace) is now all grown up and giving lifts occasionally to the cutest boy in the school, Miller (Mason Thames). Everyone is content with their lives, knows what their future will be, which is the right thematic moments for a tragedy to rip that all apart.

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Holy Cow (Vingt Dieux) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A delightful romp set in the French countryside, in a world of cheese, stock cars, and the perils of growing up.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Comté cheese.

Holy Cow Introduction –

One of my favourite films to review is when directors/writers have been putting in the work to build their craft and finally get the chance to bring their first feature outing to the big screen. Today’s entry is just such a film, with Louise Courvoisier bringing so much of herself to the big screen. Well, it is time to fly to rural France and into the world of cheese.  

So, to set the scene, Totone (Clément Faveau) has just left school and is enjoying that time in his life where all he needs to do in a day is have fun, go drinking with his friends, and occasionally get into fights with kids from the other village. However, his entire life is upended when his father is killed in a car crash, and suddenly, he must care for his young sister Claire (Luna Garret). Totone must sell almost everything to survive; however, when he discovers there is a €30,000 prize for the best Comté cheese. Well, Totone takes it upon himself and commits some minor theft to make the best cheese in the valley.

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My Old Ass – Movie Review

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TL;DR – This is a film that swims through the nostalgia of youth when significant changes are about to come, and you don’t know what the future might hold

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Elliott (39) talks to Elliott (18)

My Old Ass Review –

Today, we look at a slightly sweet film that tries to ride the line between a bombastic juvenile comedy and a quieter coming-of-age work. It is a very fine line to walk because there is not a lot of safe ground between those two points. Indeed, I know people who have entirely disagreed on where this film landed. I think I am more in that first category, but that might be just because this film is laser-targeted on who I am.

So, to set the scene, Elliott Labrant (Maisy Stella) has just turned 18, and in just 22 days, she is going to leave the life she has lived on a lake in Canada harvesting cranberries on her family’s farm to move to the big city. But before she leaves, she wants to have one more trip with her friends Ro (Kerrice Brooks) and Ruthie (Maddie Ziegler) out to an island on the lake to camp, chat, and, oh, maybe dabble in some hallucinogenic mushroom. While her friends see many interesting things like rabbit orchestra, nothing quite prepares Elliott to look over and see her 39-year-old self (Aubrey Plaza) looking back at her. They talked about life and love, and her older self warned her not to fall in love with Chad. “Well, that was an odd trip”, thought Elliott, until she found Chad (Percy Hynes White) working on her dad’s farm as a summer farmhand. Oh, and someone put a new contact ‘My Old Ass’ in her phone.

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The Delicate Cycle – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It makes the most of its one location to explore the emotions of significant life changes.     

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was sent a screener of this film.

A washing machine about to start.

The Delicate Cycle Review –

While a short film can be constraining, those limitations can be turned into strengths. You can concentrate things down into their core forms. For example, that transient information that gets passed down from generation to generation. Today, we are looking at a film that is working in that space.  

So, to set the scene, it is just a typical day for Lance (Fred Mancuso) as he gets into the laundromat as early as possible to get his clothes done. Usually, there is no one there, bar maybe Anita (Yassmin Flores), but today there was someone new, a young kid called Adam (Dean Norris Jr.) who is in the process of trying to win at Ms Pacman but also struggling with his emotions.

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The Mountain – Movie Review

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TL;DR – An emotional roller coaster that can have you laughing, crying, and uplifting all in the space of 30 seconds.

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film

Mount Taranaki in poster form.

The Mountain Review –

After a long and challenging week, I thought I would stop in at the movies on the way home from work on a Friday afternoon. I had a number of options, but then I noticed what looked like a fun kids flick out of New Zealand and thought that would be the perfect way to round out the week. I mean, it was, but it was also emotionally devastating on multiple occasions. While also being a delight at every turn. Well, let’s dive in and unpack Rachael House’s directing debut.

So, to set the scene, we open in a hospital as Sam (Elizabeth Atkinson) prepares a sneaky escape with the help of her friend Peachy (Sukena Shah). There is one thing that she wants to do in her life, and that is climb Mount Taranaki. On her way, she runs into Mallory Potts (Reuben Francis), a boy who has just moved to the area with their father Hugh (Bryan Coll), and Bronco (Terence Daniel), who is struggling with relating with his father Tux (Troy Kingi). Together, they decide to climb the mountain, no matter the obstacles in their way.

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Inside Out 2 – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is an oddly fascinating film that might be more important for parents to watch than the kids it is targeted at.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid and post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains scenes of intensity.

Joy at the consul.

Inside Out 2 Review –

Back when we first started TL: DR Movie Reviews, one of the first films we looked at was a seemingly benign kid’s film that emotionally broke me and left me openly weeping in the cinemas. Inside Out was Peak-Pixar and part of that wave of cinematic greatness that included greats like Coco, Bao, and even the more recent Luca. It had a wonderfully original story with a genuine heart behind it. Well, it has been an age, but a sequel is now here, and it is time to see if it hits as hard as the first outing.

So to set the scene, since we last met Riley (Kensington Tallman), she has grown up, met new friends (Sumayyah Nuriddin-Green & Grace Lu), and started forming core beliefs to help guide her life, all while her emotions Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (Tony Hale), and Disgust (Liza Lapira) all help her through the day. Well, when Coach Roberts (Yvette Nicole Brown) asks Riley and her friends to come to the high school summer hockey camp, it is everything Riley has ever dreamed about. The only problem is the night before they leave, that big red puberty alarm goes off, her mind is in chaos, and oh, who is that new emotion?

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Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it does not quite hit the heights of the first film, it is still a fun time.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

The many faces of Mrs Tweedy.

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget Review –

Well, if there has been something I have been waiting for an age for, it is a dive back into the world of Chicken Run. The original film was such a delight that it still sits in my Top 10 Animation Films of All Time list. However, after some understandable voice cast changes and some less understandable changes, some concerns did slip in. Thus, it is time to see if lighting can strike twice in the world of clay animation.

So to set the scene, it has been some time since Ginger (Thandiwe Newton), Rocky (Zachary Levi), Bunty (Imelda Staunton), Mac (Lynn Ferguson), Babs (Jane Horrocks), and Fowler (David Bradley) escaped from Mrs Tweedy’s (Miranda Richardson) farm and landed in the bird sanctuary. Since then, they have founded a new society, built houses, planted all sorts of crops, and started having chicks. Well, Ginger and Rocky’s daughter Molly (Bella Ramsey) is at that age where she wants to understand the world outside of their little island, with all the drive of her mother. But when a new road is built, and the danger of humans reappears, the chickens decide to hide rather than fight, which is when Molly decides to sneak out in the middle of the night.

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The Boy and the Heron (Kimitachi wa Dō Ikiru ka, 君たちはどう生きるか) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A heartbreaking and devastating exploration of grief set to a beautiful backdrop and wacky characters.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Mahito walks through grass.

The Boy and the Heron Review –

When you look at the great animation studios of history, one name does tend to stand out, so much so that we wrote a whole article about The Beauty of Ghibli. For a long time, we thought that there would be no more films because creator Hayao Miyazaki had retired. However, it seems like Miyazaki-san does not like to take it easy, and it means that we get another of his movies, and who am I to disagree?

So to set the scene, Mahito Maki (Soma Santoki/ Luca Padovan) is a young boy during WW2 who is haunted by the day he watched as the hospital with his mother inside burned to the ground. He has not really had a chance to process this when his father Shoichi (Takuya Kimura/ Christian Bale) marries his late wife’s younger sister Natsuko (Yoshino Kimura/ Gemma Chan) and moves into her estate in the countryside, where a Grey Heron (Masaki Suda/ Robert Pattinson) pays a particular notice to the new arrival.  

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Absolute Beginners (Absolutni Debiutanci): Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is a fairly predictable story about a love triangle, but an engaged cast and more female perspective help elevate the material.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this series.

Two hand meet.

Absolute Beginners Review –

Earlier this year, we dipped our toes into Polish TV for the first time with the Sci-Fi/Romance romp called A Girl and an Astronaut. That was our gateway, but I wanted to spend more time in this world, and today’s review provided just such an occasion.

So to set the scene, we open on a sprint to Ustka, a resort town on the Polish Coastline. Here, Lena (Martyna Byczkowska) and Niko (Bartłomiej Deklewa) are making a mad dash to film around and catch up to a local train to help with their application to film school. Their mothers, Bogusia (Anna Krotoska) and Tamara (Katarzyna Warnke), have been friends since they were kids and now own a holiday home together where the families go each year. However, this year, both families are on the cusp of significant changes: moving to Italy, wondering if they are happy in their marriage, a wash of hormones affecting everything, which is a setting primed for danger even before Niko and Lena find Igor (Jan Sałasiński) alone struggling in the surf. Now from here, we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Crater – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A fun yet grounded film that knows when to pack an emotional punch.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

They look up at the blue gem of Earth in the sky.

Crater Review –

I always look forward to an interesting new take on the science fiction world. Still, as we look out into the wide world, it has been nice to see something a bit closer to home get some of the limelight recently with Ad Astra, Moonfall, The Wandering Earth II, and more. The Moon, or Luna, benefits from being right there but just out of our grasp. It beckons from a time in our past and might also be a building block of our future. There are many stories to tell, and today we look at a fascinating combination of a coming-of-age film and a road trip movie, all outside the atmosphere.  

So to set the scene, up above the pale blue dot that is the Earth lives the Moon, and in 2257, it was home to the Lunar Mining Colony. As a meteor storm comes and lockdown is declared, we find that several people are not in their quarters but are in the process of stealing a rover. Caleb Channing (Isaiah Russell-Bailey) and his friends Addison Weaver (Mckenna Grace), Dylan (Billy Barratt), Borney (Orson Hong) & Marcus (Thomas Boyce) crack into the rover’s circuitry to try and hot-wire it. Caleb just lost his father, Michael (Scott Mescudi), in the mines and is about to be sent to the new Colony of Omega, 70 years away. Before he leaves in three days and never sees his friends again, the group decides to go on a road trip to the once place Caleb’s parents liked on Luna, a crater.  

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