July was a pretty busy month for me, between a conference and a family wedding, so I didn't see a TON. But among them were some good 'uns!
Past Lives | Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken | Joy Ride (2023) | Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning, Part One | Kung Fu Panda 2 | Kung Fu Panda 3
Past Lives, 01 July 2023, Century Olympia
This one is a punch to the heart, but...in a...good way? Basically, Nora and Hae Sung are the best of friends as kids in South Korea. They're juuuuuust at the age where they are vaguely starting to think maybe they might have romantic feelings towards each other, but then Nora's family moves to Canada. It's a teensy bit heartwrenching, how cute these two are.
Maybe a dozen years later, Nora's moved to New York City. She's an aspiring playwright and she's doing the artist hustle. Somewhat out of the blue, Hae Sung contacts her through social media (ah, Facebook, amirite?) and they begin a bit of a "oh my god, it's been so long" reacquaintance via Skype. (Remember Skype?) Their connection snaps back into place, and there's a fun and, once again, teensy bit heartwrenching sequence of these two trying to stay in touch despite their vast difference in time zones and circumstances. They're kind of infatuated, but also don't talk about it. Eventually Nora decides they should take a break and they fall out of communication again.
Hae Sung works in China for a while. Nora meets Arthur at a writer's retreat and falls in love. They get married.
A few years later, Hae Sung gets back in contact. He's decided to take a quick vacation in New York, and he wonders if Nora still wants to meet up.
Teensy bit heartwrenching becomes full-out heartrending at this point, because Nora and Hae Sung's connection is still strong, but she's also very much in love with her husband. And all three of them kind of know the score of the impossible situation.
Spoiler alert: This is not a movie about infidelity. It's a story about what if. The final sequence is a beautiful long shot that is both rife with tension and absolutely wistful. By the time we hit the credits, I was crying buckets.
Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken, 04 July 2023, Century Olympia
This is a cute and fairly boilerplate "teenagerhood is about alienation and here's how you can learn to accept it" narrative. Ruby Gillman is secretly a GIANT KRAKEN and she and her family are passing for humans in human society. How exactly do they manage to pass for humans when they're freakin' BLUE and have NO NOSES? That is not addressed.
Ruby, delightfully, has a group of friends who are weird like her, plus a Cool Guy love interest who is actually quite into her! They're sweet, if also kind of pushily supportive, as friends at that age can often be.
When Ruby's giant-kraken powers start kicking in more intensely, things start getting complicated. It turns out Ruby is royalty! They're passing as humans because of her mom has PTSD about the only-barely-past war with the mermaids, and her mom's worried that with great power comes great being-saddled-with-generational-warfare responsibilities. But when Ruby falls into the ocean one day (which effectively revs up her kraken powers), she meets her Grandmama, and things get COMPLICATED.
Also, there's a mermaid at Ruby's high school now. NGL, folks, the moment when ardent fans are throwing roses at the mermaid and she shouts, "Love you too, rando!" is the most I have ever seen a movie replicate my beloved Niecelet's ethos.
Fun movie. Lightweight, good for families, unsurprising.
Joy Ride (2023), 08 July 2023, Century Olympia
This is a gleefully obscene road trip comedy about four Asian American people who are all struggling with their identities in one way or another. (Race, gender, career, sexuality, nationality.) It's hard to explain. Just, I don't know, watch the trailer?
But yeah, basically, Audrey's parents are white and adopted her from China. Her best friend since childhood is Lolo. They have very little in common as adults--Audrey's in some sort of sales business, while Lolo is an aspiring statement artist--but the bond persists. (In one of the funniest and quietest jokes, when Audrey balks at Lolo's accusations of her whiteness, Lolo challenges her to name characters from Succession. Audrey gets to the third name before she trails off and murmurs, "Oh, I see.")
When a business trip sends Audrey to China, she convinces Lolo to come along partly as an interpreter, and partly for a girls' trip. Lolo's cousin, Deadeye (nonbinary but, early on, still being identified as female), tags along so they can visit family along the way, and they meet up with Audrey's college roommate Kat, who is a TV star. (She's also frustratedly celibate because her extremely hot boyfriend is a devout Christian who wants them both to wait until marriage. The jokes about this are about what you expect them to be.)
Anyway, they decide to take an impromptu trip to find Audrey's birth mother and hijinks ensue.
This is billed as a raunchy comedy, and THEY MEAN IT. But if your sensibilities aren't too delicate, you will likely enjoy the ride. The explorations of friendship and identity are sincerely played, amongst all the nonsense, and Audrey's journey ends up being pretty touching.
Mission: Impossible--Dead Reckoning, Part 1, 09 July 2023, Century Olympia
In a fun turn of events, I got to see an early screening of this at my local theatre! I love the Mission Impossible franchise--it's got the gonzo action nonsense of the Fast/Furious series, except unfortunately less diversity in the cast. (Vulture did a hilarious quiz to this effect: "Which Movie Am I Talking About?")
The newest person to join the team is Grace, who is supposed to be a thief extraordinaire, but because she's played by Hayley Atwell, I could not completely believe she was a chaotic neutral character and kept thinking she was Agent Peggy Carter at loose ends, instead.
That said, Grace being a reluctant ally at first led to the my favorite action sequence. While this film might be most famously known as "the one with the motorcycle jump," their handcuffed-in-the-tiny-car hijinks were perhaps the most cleverly choreographed.
Grace's arrival unfortunately led to--SPOILER ALERT--the departure of Ilsa, who deserved better. However, as the MI universe can maintain two femme fatales to one female protagonist, Vanessa Kirby's White Widow is complemented by Pom Klemetieff (AKA Mantis from the MCU), who honestly looks like she's having the goddamn time of her life.
Anyway, the villain of this piece seems to be Skynet? I'm down.
Kung Fu Panda 2, 25 July 2023, streamed via Apple TV+
So one afternoon, the Niecelet felt the need to watch the Kung Fu Panda movies. As she is wont to do, she declared them "cinematic masterpieces" and insisted we watch them together. (Luckily I missed the day she did this with the Alvin and the Chipmunks films.) While I had an extremely negative reaction to the first KFP movie because it seemed to tell us, "Hey, as long as you MEAN WELL, it's okay if you haven't studied your ENTIRE LIFE to be an expert in something." The sequel sort of course corrected on this, as it showed that Po, while SOMEHOW evincing some special martial arts skills, still struggled at some of the basics his peers have mastered over their YEARS OF TRAINING.
The villain of the piece this time around is Shen, a psychotic peacock. I don't know, guys, okay? Roll with it.
The most badass moment is when Po harnesses his skidooshiness and hurls fireballs back at the enemy. Oh yeah, did I mention they have gunpowder this time around?
And the funniest moment is definitely a poop joke. I LOLed.
On to the third!
Kung Fu Panda 3, 25 July 2023, streamed via Netflix
I actually hadn't seen this one yet, so it was a pleasant surprise! For some reason, my brain had conflated this with the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria expansion.
They are not actually the same! The villain this time around is Kai, a resurrected (?!) bull who can somehow use jade to defeat AND THEN SUMMON THE SPIRITS of other martial arts masters, which seems both terrifying and completely unfair. (Also, this seems like a lot of unaddressed murder in a children's franchise, no?)
This is also the film where we delve into the unanswered question of how Po, a giant panda, ended up being raised by Ping, a goose. It's quite touching! I mean, look at li'l Po!
Anyway, in the fight against Kai, Po's father turns up, and Po is introduced to a hidden society of pandas. There's a whole thing about community supporting each other which is really lovely.
The best thing, of course, is the double dad scene. Ping + Li FTW!
Apparently there's a fourth of these coming out in the near future! I guess I'll go see it.
Now I have an intense urge to play World of Warcraft. Should I start another panda alt? ANYWAY, that's it for July! Next up, August, AKA Barbenheimmer month.
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