Tag Archives: Coming of Age

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)

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Hey, it’s better than “Black Adam.”

That’s about the biggest glowing opinion I can give “Fury of the Gods” when all is said and done. The follow up to the 2019 crowd pleaser is a perfectly fine film. It’s a solid adaptation of a unique comic book series, and it’s a good chance this is the last time we’ll see “Shazam!” with this cast. That being said, I liked “Fury of the Gods” even if I wasn’t a big fan of how much they toned down the content to make it so much more appealing to the younger audience. “Shazam!” had demons, and “Fury of the Gods” has unicorns.

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5-25-77 (2017)

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It’s a shame that in 2022, a year filled with movies about movies that landed with a thud, that the best one, “5-25-77” will have gone largely unnoticed and ignored. “5-25-77” is a love letter about movie making, it’s an ode to the art of filmmaking, and how film can also be a reflection of how we view life. Director Patrick Read Johnson’s coming of age drama comedy is a pretty excellent indie film, one that I’ve been waiting for over five years to watch that is now being available to view for a wider audience. 

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Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons (2022) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]

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With the new direction the DCAU is taking, it only makes sense for them to finally veer in to the world of the Super Sons. For a few years now, Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne’s sons have been the most unlikely popular duo. Warner and DC even welcome them in to the fold of the DC Animated library with a full CG animated movie rather than hand drawn. I much prefer hand drawn, but the CG animation works wonders for the high energy first adventures of Jonathan Kent and Damian Wayne. In either case, “Battle of the Super Sons” is a great buddy action movie, and it’s a coming of age action film featuring two legacy heroes that have a big task on their hands.

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Honeycomb (2021) [Slamdance 2022]

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It’s always thrilling when you can see the beginning of what you hope will be a long, seasoned career of filmmaking. Avalon Fast is a filmmaker that has immense promise, and it’s fascinating that she delivers a movie that’s so jarring and unnerving, and absolutely original. Director Fast has a great habit for making the audience uncomfortable, opening the film on a weird portrait of a woman in a honeycomb, and then contrasting it with the image of innocence with one of her characters lying along a serene field. From there, it only escalates.

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Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

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Not many younger fans know this, but once upon a time, before Marvel became another arm of Disney, Spider-Man was basically Mighty Marvel’s equivalent to Mickey Mouse. He was the most relatable, most accessible, and most liked hero, even when the company was as its worst. Easily the biggest movie of 2021, “No Way Home” is a glimpse in to what makes Spider-Man such a timeless hero and why so many people continue connect to our favorite Friendly Neighborhood Wallcrawler.

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In the Heights (2021) [Blu-Ray/Digital]

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In a really crappy summer and a pretty hectic year in Hollywood, one of the bigger releases in 2021 was “In the Heights.” It’s a movie I’d been looking forward to for a long time, since Lin Manuel Miranda is one of my personal heroes. It’s finally brought to film by director Jon M. Chu after being in literal development hell since 2008. Jon M. Chu is no stranger to films involving dancing and urban settings, thankfully, and we’re given an absolutely dazzling, emotional, and energetic musical.

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Baby, Don’t Cry (2020) [Fantasia Film Festival 2021]

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Director Jesse Dvorak’s crime drama is a bit problematic in that it’s a film that constantly jumps from theme to theme and never quite decides on what kind of story it wants to tell. It’s both about the immigrant experience in America, followed by culture shock often experienced by main character Baby. Most of the time she struggles with what she thinks are the norms for American culture, and this amounts to a script that’s never quite focused and feels ultimately under cooked.

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In the Heights (2021)

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The COVID Pandemic has changed a lot about what we love about New York City; over the years it’s become something of an environment where opportunities have dwindled and the sense of community has been lost. From Gentrification and the Exodus of its residents, the city just isn’t familiar anymore. “In the Heights” is that reminder that once upon a time New York was about tight knit communities sticking together and beating the odds. And it’s a call to the idea that maybe it all can be reclaimed.

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