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5 votes
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One family’s ordeal with schizophrenia: In “The Edge of Every Day,” Marin Sardy struggles to make sense of a deeply mysterious disease and its effects on her mother and brother
7 votes -
Sony a7R IV: First Impressions and real-world photos
6 votes -
They Called Us Enemy: George Takei has talked about his family’s internment before. But never quite like this.
9 votes -
‘The Lion King’ review: Disney’s remake is a disastrous plunge into the uncanny valley
14 votes -
Swedish film reviewers are giving a cautious welcome to Midsommar, a horror film about a bizarre pagan festival in a remote part of Sweden
7 votes -
“How could you, Woody?” Or: my reaction to Toy Story 4
First up: that “spoiler” tag isn’t there for fun. This essay is going to focus on a climactic moment in ‘Toy Story 4’. If you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know what happens, close this topic...
First up: that “spoiler” tag isn’t there for fun. This essay is going to focus on a climactic moment in ‘Toy Story 4’. If you haven’t seen it and don’t want to know what happens, close this topic NOW.
I saw ‘Toy Story 4’ last night. I’ve been catching myself up on the previous movies over the past few weeks (I’d never seen any of them before), so they’re reasonably fresh in my mind. I surprised myself by enjoying the movies a bit more than I expected to. I had assumed they were very much children’s movies, but I found them engaging and enjoyable even as a middle-aged adult.
So I was all caught up, and went out last night to see the latest instalment in the franchise with a friend who’s a massive fan of all things Disney.
I liked it. It was yet another “toys having adventures in the big wide world” story line. That seems to be the main story line of all the Toy Story movies: the toys get lost or misplaced, or have to go rescue a toy who is lost or misplaced, so they end up having adventures outside of their home.
But there’s usually an emotional heart to each movie. And that emotional heart often comes from the character of Woody, whose goal has always been to make sure that the toys are doing what toys are supposed to do: bringing joy to children. As we often get told, mostly by Woody, being a child’s plaything is the most noble thing a toy can do. To that end, Woody seems willing to do almost anything. The toys have mounted ridiculous rescue missions, they’ve manipulated humans (it wasn’t Andy’s idea to give his toys to Bonnie), and they’ve made personal sacrifices. Even in this movie, Woody was willing to give up his voice box so that he could get brand-new toy Forky back to Bonnie who had made him, and to give Gabby the chance to belong to a kid.
Then…
Woody met Bo Peep in this movie, and found her living an independent life as a lost toy. We know they’ve had romantic feelings towards each other, but she was given away by Andy’s little sister some years back. Then she got given away again, to an antique store. Now she turns up living near a caravan park, and she’s noone’s toy except her own.
Normally, Woody would have moved heaven and earth to reunite Bo with her previous kid, or to find her a new one. But she doesn’t want one. She’s an independent toy now, and that suits her fine.
So they have their adventures. And, at the end of those adventures, Woody and his fellow toys are returning to Bonnie, while Bo is returning to her independent life. And Woody has a moment of indecision. Does he return to Bonnie, or does he go with Bo?
But, there’s not really that much tension because we know how this is going to end. Woody has told us so many times that being a child’s plaything is the most noble thing a toy can do. Of course he’s going back to Bonnie.
And then he chooses to go with Bo.
I sobbed.
Let me give some context for my reaction to this moment. I do respond emotionally to movies and television. I laugh loudly when something is funny, and I cry openly when something is sad. I jolt back in my seat in response to scary moments, and I’ve been known to cover my eyes during exceptionally gory scenes. I’m not ashamed to feel things in response to events on the screen, nor to express those feelings. That’s normal for me. However, I felt a very strong emotional reaction to this moment in the movie – much stronger than most. I wanted to burst out in loud unmanly sobs because of how upset I was. I wanted to shout at the screen. I felt a real and physical reaction in my gut: it was literally a gut-wrenching moment for me (and that almost never happens!). This was the strongest emotional reaction I’ve had to any moment in movies or television for years. It was strong enough to prompt me to write about it!
I know I was supposed to feel happy that Woody and Bo had found each other, and they loved each other, and this was the start of their romantic “happy ever after”. But that’s not why I cried. I cried because Woody turned his back on nobility and chose selfishness.
Woody had been the conscience and the heart of the whole franchise, reconciling toys to their place in life, and helping toys to achieve their goal in life. Even in this movie, he had turned Forky around from wanting to be trash to wanting to help Bonnie. Woody showed toys their noble goal in life, and did everything he could to help them achieve it.
And then he turned his back on everything he’d said and believed up till now.
Sure, Bonnie wasn’t playing with him as much as Andy did. Sure, he wasn’t top dog in Bonnie’s playroom (that place belonged to Dolly, who’d been there much longer than Woody and his fellows). But Woody was always selfless. Woody was always looking out for the children’s best interests. Woody was always putting the children’s needs ahead of his own. He had previously told his fellow toys that even being stored in the attic was a good thing because it meant their child (now a college man) still cared about them to some degree. So, even if Bonnie wasn’t playing with him all the time, he would still want to stay around to be there for her – or even to be there for the other toys she did play with.
Wouldn’t he?
Or was it all a lie? Was it all about his own selfish desire to be important and, then, when that importance was taken away, he decided to walk out?
Or was it as basic as choosing pleasure over service?
How could you do that, Woody? How could you turn your back on everything noble and good, and choose your own selfish desires instead?
Woody, you broke my heart.
22 votes -
Midsommar is a waking nightmare and I mean that in the best possible way
8 votes -
Star Trek Discovery Season 2 | re:View
5 votes -
Super Mario Maker 2 review: Much more than a game design toolkit
8 votes -
Staining The Timbre XXL Freshman Class Review Series - Dababy
4 votes -
Staining The Timbre XXL Freshman Class Review Series - Megan Thee Stallion
2 votes -
Staining The Timbre Review Series: Gunna
2 votes -
Open Place Reviews, an open data review site developed by osmand and maps.me
8 votes -
Primer (2004) - My spoiler free review of possibly the most complex and headscratch enducing time traveling themed sci-fi movie of all time.
Hello fellow Tildos! I normally never write reviews, but i just had to after i finished watching. It's also an easy way for me to continue practice my English/writing skills, feel free to pm any...
Hello fellow Tildos! I normally never write reviews, but i just had to after i finished watching. It's also an easy way for me to continue practice my English/writing skills, feel free to pm any feedback that you might have :)
The first time i put on the movie Primer closer to it's release i ended up putting it on the shelf half way through or so, i was probably to tired and not in the mood, because it´s one of those movies that requires your full attention.
Years went by and i forgot all about the sci-fi indie that shook Sundance back in 2004, only for it to emerge not long ago when i made another list of movies to either watch or re-watch once more, as i do now and then. I usually make these lists with a theme, or dedicated to a specific genre, this time it being sci-fi.
During my time watching this super low budget movie made by the software engineer Shane Carruth(his background really shows off in the movie) i had a hard time not thinking about the high quality of cinematography. We are shown some really nice angles right from the start, and very appealing lines of symmetry all the way through, similar to scenes found in movies made by Wes Anderson for example. Same goes for the acting and writing, - some of the dialogue really got me captivated. Every scene had things to say about the characters early on, but it also leaves enough out to keep you curious of who they really are, and what their motives might be, character development, check. An example of this is how they used wardrobe + setting to describe said characters, which obviously was very limited due to the extremely low budget, I have not looked up the actual numbers, but i think i have watched enough indie movies to identify extreme cases like this one. They did a lot with how little they had, which is an art in itself in the business of movie making. This probably bit me in the butt a bit(in a good way, no not that way, grow up:), instead of trying to figure out the time paradoxes, i was captured by how well the movie was made.
After i finished watching i had an ocean of questions. Questions i wont mention here because it might spoil the experience for you. This is a good tell that it's a movie in my taste in a sense that it leaves gaps in the story for you to fill in yourself, it´s a type of storytelling i enjoy, but also a type of storytelling that many dislike.
There is no hand holding in this movie, no explanation at the end, it trusts you to re-watch the movie until you have figured it out, or at least think you have, which is bold, but also embraces the charm of time traveling themed story's in a way, making you travel back in time by rewinding and figure out the time-lines. Or do as i did and watch an explanation video on youtube for closure.
I understand now what all the fuzz was about, why it won prices at sundance, and why it became such a strong cult classic almost instantly.
If you want a mind bender, and a movie that treats you with the respect that you can think for yourself, this might be something for you. If you are into sci-fi, and especially time travel, it's a must watch as long as you can allow yourself to get confused more then you usually get by this type of movie. I also recommend watching this when you have a fresh and rested mind, not after a long day of work.
7.8/10 - will paradox again sometime in the future
28 votes -
It’s time to rethink wine criticism: Dreary scores and tasting notes are of little long-term use to consumers
3 votes -
The Toy Story trilogy gets the epilogue it deserves
16 votes -
"Amazon's Choice" is given to products automatically and doesn't indicate quality - Many have troubling product defects and warnings, as well as review manipulation
25 votes -
John Carpenter's The Thing, Lost in Adaptation ~ Dominic Noble & That Movie Chick
5 votes -
Empire of meat
2 votes -
A Brilliant Void: A Selection of Classic Irish Science Fiction edited by Jack Fennell
7 votes -
Cyberpunk 2077's E3 demo has weak gunplay and unimaginative stereotypes
25 votes -
Men in Black: International forgets what made the original so great
9 votes -
The restaurant owner who asked for one-star Yelp reviews
20 votes -
Watch Dogs: Legion hands-on: one hour hacking my way through London
7 votes -
The Virtues, a review
4 votes -
A ranking of every ‘Black Mirror’ episode
8 votes -
In 'Don't Wake The Night', You Have The Power Of A God Without The Omniscience
6 votes -
The Mind-Body Solution: Neal Stephenson’s Fall explores higher consciousness, the internet’s future, and virtual worldbuilding in one mind-blowing adventure.
5 votes -
2019 Macbook Pro review by Dave Lee
17 votes -
Death is just the beginning: The undead anxiety attack of ‘What We Do in the Shadows’
8 votes -
Staining The Timbre - Review: "The Hillbilly Moonshine Massacre" by Jonathan Raab
3 votes -
‘Booksmart’ is the movie you wish had eisted when you were a teen
4 votes -
‘Marx at the Arcade: Consoles, Controllers, and Class Struggle’: A new, sociological investigation of how videogames and gaming fit into contemporary capitalism
6 votes -
Valve explains their thoughts about whether the recent Assassin's Creed: Unity giveaway resulted in the first "off-topic review bomb" with a positive effect
14 votes -
Tyler, the Creator still demands your attention. Does he deserve it?
9 votes -
The Terror
4 votes -
Game of Thrones petition: 500,000 demand series eight remake
29 votes -
Data shows “Game of Thrones” is taking a historic critical nosedive
20 votes -
Clumsy gods: ‘Catch-22’ brings the subversive humor—and horror—of the book to Hulu
7 votes -
Which sites do you get your movie news/reviews from?
What sites do people use for movie reviews and news? I've been following movie news via the internet since the late 90s. I used to frequent sites like Coming Attractions and C.H.U.D. multiple...
What sites do people use for movie reviews and news? I've been following movie news via the internet since the late 90s. I used to frequent sites like Coming Attractions and C.H.U.D. multiple times per day.
For the past few years, I've mostly been using Twitter to follow news, but I'm trying to use Twitter less so I was curious where other people get their movie news...
This is just a quick list based on my bookmarks...
News Sites
- Birth.Movies.Death - For general movie news
- Bloody Disgusting - For horror specific movie news
Reviews/Thinkpieces
- Bright Wall/Dark Room - Good longform articles
- Horror Movie a Day - My go to reviewer for horror movies
- Jordy Reviews It
- Outlaw Vern - My go to reviewer to find out if an action/martial arts movie is worth watching
- Talk Film Society
11 votes -
Review: "Chambers" Season One
3 votes -
The ‘El Chicano’ Latinx superhero movie needed more of El Chicano
4 votes -
Review: "Bedroom Music" by Steph Castor
5 votes -
Avengers: Endgame as explained by a first time MCU Viewer
15 votes -
Detective Pikachu review — an absurdly silly, wonderful ride
8 votes -
Netflix’s Tuca & Bertie is a surreal celebration of friendship
4 votes -
Buying from Amazon: Three steps to find what you need and avoid fake reviews | No Sweat Tech
7 votes -
Eudora Welty on Charlotte's Web, Dorothy Parker on Winnie the Pooh, and more classic reviews of beloved children's books.
5 votes -
Netflix’s wonderful Street Food focuses on the human aspect of ordinary food
6 votes