Coyote vs ACME

It’s possible that the marketing and PR people at Warner Brothers are absolute geniuses. In a calculated effort to play the long game, they may have intentionally shelved this “little guy vs huge corporation” underdog tale to foment a viral campaign; a narrative that mirrors the story of Wile E. Coyote, recasting him from a clown to a hero. Then they sell the movie to some random company (Ketchup Entertainment), make them shoulder the bulk of the marketing expenses, and sell the gazillions of Looney Tunes merch keeping the profits for themselves. Truly an ACME-worthy scheme. But the only issue is: transforming Mr. Coyote into the protagonist means the Roadrunner is the villain, and that doesn’t sound right. To justify this, part of the story must include the Roadrunner “missing” the Coyote and enjoying being chased, which is the only teeny, tiny disingenuous part of what is otherwise a really satisfying “ret-con” of Mr. Coyote’s saga. He is the hero for never giving up, despite the universe’s obvious bias against him. It’s not his fault. He’s not inept. It’s Big Anvil that’s the problem. Never give up, little guy. The corporations will fall someday, like that corner of the cliff that hovers in the air while the rest of the mountain collapses behind it.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

You have to hand it to the filmmakers for attempting to remake Mulholland Drive. Homages abound, although this version supposedly has a happy ending. The only way a self-aware slasher like this would work is if the actors are fully on board with the reality-bending/wish-fulfillment nuttiness, and Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson are in it to win it. They need to be when the metaphors start coming in hot and heavy-handed. You see: it turns out that (spoiler alert) sometimes horror movies correlate sex with violence. And so the movie is not saying that rape is okay as long as it leads to an orgasm, because that would just be weird, right? I'm sure there's a deeper, Lynchian subtext there that I'm just missing. Anyhoo, I'm glad this movie got made, and I'm happy for the filmmakers for getting something dark and morally fluid out to the common people. But if you want to cook like Lynch, it's more than just following a recipe.

The End of Oak Street

What if (now stay with me here), what if dinosaurs had feathers?? Paradoxical wormhole logic places Academy Award Winner Anne Hathaway and Emmy Winner Ewan McGregor’s sleepy suburban neighborhood smack in the middle of a dinosaur-teeming jungle from 200 million years ago. Filmmakers deserve great kudos for showing a lot of neighbors being attacked and eaten in a way that hasn’t quite been seen before – to the point where it’s comedic. There is almost always somebody being relentlessly chased, tackled, and eaten in the background with dark comedy delight. 

Homo-sapiens are mostly ineffectual against hungry, angry dinosaurs. They do what they can with their station wagons, bows and arrows, and running. Plenty of running. (Didn't they see Jurassic Park?? "Keep absolutely still. Its vision is based on movement.") It’s a 1980s throwback, which helps make this a charming, summer popcorn diversion. Time-travel paradoxes can be frustrating if you leave the audience too much time to think about it. Here, thankfully, they don’t. And when the wormhole plot points are needed they’re handled playfully, with a Rick-and-Morty cheekiness. Ultimately, with Spielbergian tribute, this is about the grueling survival of a marriage, and the monsters you need to kill with a kitchen knife to get through the day.