Ready Player One

Spielberg and company summarily change the novel, for the better I suppose, even though that’s always considered a high-crime. The story weaknesses in the novel, of which there are many, are torched all together and a new plot emerges from the ashes. The novelist’s affinity for certain, very specific 80’s pop-culture treasures falls by the wayside, which is why we don’t see War Games clips in this, but instead it’s… I’m not spoiling it. Filmmakers drastically improve on the motives of “Halliday” -- the Willy Wonka of this adventure, peppering in a taste of Spielbergian sentimentality. It’s a pleasure to watch and purely entertaining, even if it’s not the purely 80’s trip down memory lane that audiences were expecting.

Red Sparrow

“Jennifer Lawrence is a hilarious, Academy Award-winning ray of sunshine. I know: let’s put her in a movie where she pouts the entire time.”

Academy Award Nominated Animated Short Films

DEAR BASKETBALL

With music by John Williams, this essay about how much Kobe Bryant loves basketball is nicely animated, but thematically shallow and obvious.

GARDEN PARTY

Beautifully animated, with a dark-comedy twist at the end.

LOU

Not that animated films HAVE to be logical. But this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Sentiment supersedes inner logic, I suppose.

NEGATIVE SPACE

Thematically strong short about a narrator’s relationship with his father based on how he learned from his father how to pack a suitcase.

REVOLTING RHYMES

A twist on the old red-riding hood fable. Felt long.