WALLACE & GROMIT: VENGEANCE MOST FOWL

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Director/co-writer Nick Park and his brilliant team of animators deliver the most delightful children's comedy you could ever imagine.

Aardman Animations has been a household name for decades. Their painstaking approach to stop-motion claymation kids' movies sits head-and-shoulders above, well, every other animation studio.

Ingenious.

Neither Studio Ghibli nor Disney has anything on Aardman Animations.

The love is on the screen.

Everything you see is an actual miniature model being filmed frame by frame.

Painstaking work.

Respect.

With a distinctly British sense of humor, this outing for inventor Wallace and his assistant dog Gro mit finds Wallace creating a gardening assistant gnome robot.

Gromit has good reason to be suspicious of the all-too-efficient robot that looks like a crazed elf.

Wallace gains a lot of public enemies when he rents out his elfin creation to do landscaping for his neighbors.

The action shifts into high gear when the robot gnome creates a troupe of clones under the command of a diamond thief penguin.

Gnome clones! Oh no!

Every frame of "Wallace & Gromit; Vengeance Most Fowl" is a thing of artistic perfection.

Normal filmmakers never have to the lengths that Nick Park and crew do in making a story that works at every millisecond of screentime.

The chase scenes are amazing, and every little joke and nudge hits your funny-bone just right.

At its heart is the friendship between Wallace and Gromit, our two classic comic characters from way back.

Here is a super fun kids' movie that has just as much entertainment punch for its adult audiences.

It could be a great Thanksgiving or Christmas movie tradition.

What joy springs from this delightful movie.

I'd watch it again right now!

Love it to pieces.

Rated PG. 82 glorious minutes!

HARD TRUTHS

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does.

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This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

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Mike Leigh continues to forge new filmic ground in his signature social-realist cinema that has now lasted six decades.

The effect can be overwhelming.

Audience tears flow freely during this cathartic reflection on mental illness and the effects it has on others.

Pansy is a lost human being.

To quote Iggy Pop, "she, not right."

Marianne Jean-Baptiste gives a fearless tour de force performance as Pansy, a woman haunted by trauma, fear, anger, and regret.

Pansy's loving sister Chantelle (Michelle Austin) keeps a brave face in encouraging Pansy to soften her attitude while providing positive support for her sad sister.

London's Black Caribbean community forms Leigh's narrative setting from which he examines emotional and external forces that his characters navigate.

"Hard Truths" is up there with the best films of John Cassavetes.

I dare say "Hard Truths" carries the potential power to alter the relationship behavior of its audience.

If you want kitchen-sink drama, here it is.

You will feel the feeling.

Special thanks to the late, great Sam Cooke.

Rated R. 97 mins.

REPO MAN — SHOCKTOBER!

Welcome!

Groupthink doesn't live here, critical thought does. This ad-free website is dedicated to Agnès Varda and to Luis Buñuel.

Punk heart still beating.

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Your kind generosity keeps the reviews coming!

Alex Cox caught lightening in a bottle in 1984 with a snarly little L.A.-set independent movie that became a cult classic thanks to the success of its soundtrack (featuring Iggy Pop).

This kooky time-capsule political satire uses LA's hardcore punk scene for its churning dystopic social milieu that our 18-year-old Otto (Emilio Estevez) traverses while getting sucked into becoming a repo man. 

Reaganomics hangs in the smoggy air like a bad fart.

Harry Dean Stanton plays Bud, Otto's father-figure who schools Otto in the code of the repo man as they scout repos in the less glamorous neighborhoods of LA.

"A repo man spends his life getting into tense situations."
"Repo man is always intense."

Such dialogue seems written in stone, especially when the film's theme-carrier, Miller (Tracey Walter) busts out with philosophical gems like, "The more you drive, the less intelligent you are."

 What did he just say?

Now you've got me thinking.

Otto eats generic food at his parents house. His tweet tweet arf arf folks have given their life savings away to a televangelist. So much for college.

Otto's future looks bleak unless he can repo a certain 1964 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu with a $20,000 reward, and a Neutron bomb-related MacGuffin in the trunk, a nice hat-tip to the plot-driver in the 1955 Cold War thriller "Kiss Me Deadly."

Endlessly watchable, "Repo Man" stands up as an inspired artistic expression amid dark social and political repression.

Here's a great excuse to kick it.

Rated R. 92 mins.