The Fabelmans

Who else could tell Steven Spielberg's adolescent life from his fascination with making films, dealing with antisemitism, witnessing his parents' marriage dissolve, and getting his foot in the door to Hollywood than Spielberg himself with The Fabelmans. While it's mostly semi-biographical as Steven's equivalent is named Sammy Fabelman, you can tell how passionate he is about telling the story of his childhood and what drove him to the career we all know him for. Everything about this film is pure Spielberg, all thanks to his direction and the writing he shares with Tony Kushner, the exquisite cinematography from Janusz Kaminski, and John Williams's regular collaboration gives us one of his strongest scores. The performances, meanwhile, is the very center of this film thanks to Gabriel LaBelle as Sammy, Michelle Williams and Paul Dano as his parents, and Judd Hirsch and David Lynch in small but highly impactful roles as Sammy's circus lion taming granduncle and John Ford. One negative I do have is that the pacing is a little dodgy, however what makes Michael Kahn and Sarah Broshar's editing is that since it's meant to be all seen through the eyes of a child it works in that regard. The Fabelmans is not only a beautiful movie but also one of the greatest love letters to cinema there's ever been. Over all: 100%

2022 top list so far:

1. The Fabelmans

2. Top Gun: Maverick

3. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

4. Strange World

5. The Black Phone

6. Nope

7. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

8. The Northman

9. The Batman

10. Pearl

11. Lightyear

12. Dog

13. Everything Everywhere All at Once

14. X 2022

15. Scream 2022

16. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

17. Bullet Train

18. Halloween Ends

19. Thor: Love and Thunder

20. Jurassic World: Dominion

21. Black Adam

22. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

23. Uncharted

Strange World

Mixing pulpy science fiction adventure stories you expect to find in 1950s comic books and the out there writings of highly imaginative authors like Terry Pratchett, Strange World is one of Disney's most bold works. Set in a land, called Avalonia, that's surrounded on all sides by mountain walls, the people there use a green plant with enough energy to power their technology. When the power to the plants starts to turn off, Searcher, an adventurer who found the plants voiced by Jake Gyllenhaal, believes that the power is being interfered and sets out with a team, and his son, to figure out what to do. Using the vines, they are lead into the mountains, into parts no one has ever been, dealing with strange creatures and running into Searcher's long lost father, the famous adventurer Jaeger played by Dennis Quaid. Being Disney, the animation is absolutely beautiful, but the design for the creatures the cast find are very unique but also owe a lot to various alien creatures created by the likes of Douglas Adams, Pratchett, and other similar sci-fi authors. The writing is pretty typical for the genre, and especially dealing with the family centric relationship of the Jaeger family, though it's still well done and makes the characters very dimensional and relatable. Though having Searcher's son, Ethan voiced by Jaboukie Young-White, being gay is good, it's not touched upon as much and feels like it could easily be written out. But the writing's biggest strength comes from the twist about what the characters find when they go past the mountains, very unexpected and so good. Vocal performances in Disney productions always give the best from its cast, and this movie's is no exception. From the Jaeger family, Gyllenhaal, Young-White, and Quaid are all convincing in portraying three generations of adventurers. The rest of the cast, including Gabrielle Union, Alan Tudyk, and Lucy Liu, do just as great of a job as the other three. Despite bombing at the box office, I'm sure that Strange World will follow in the footsteps of past Disney animations that will become future classics like Atlantis or Treasure Planet. Over all: 100%

2022 top list so far:

1. Top Gun: Maverick

2. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

3. Strange World

4. The Black Phone

5. Nope

6. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

7. The Northman

8. The Batman

9. Pearl

10. Lightyear

11. Dog

12. Everything Everywhere All at Once

13. X 2022

14. Scream 2022

15. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

16. Bullet Train

17. Halloween Ends

18. Thor: Love and Thunder

19. Jurassic World: Dominion

20. Black Adam

21. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

22. Uncharted

Hulk Vol. 5 #1

The followup to the Immortal Hulk series, Hulk Vol. 5 #1 sees Bruce Banner taking over the Hulk by turning the green giant into a controllable monster. Within the mind scape of Banner's psyche, he sits in the center like a captain of a ship, the Hulk body being like the ship he controls, and the Hulk persona fueling the engine through its anger. This debut issue sees Bruce piloting the Hulk as he fights the Avengers while trying to get to a portal that will get him somewhere that may cure him or separate him from the Hulk. While the concept of Banner doing anything he can to not have the Hulk inside of him is nothing new, him turning the Green Goliath into a starship is such an insane and wacky idea, but it does work really well. With the writing of Donny Cates, the artwork of Ryan Ottley, coloring from Frank Martin Jr., and lettering by Cory Petit, you have a strong contribution from so many people to craft a fun and well done comic. You get well done drama as you see what it is like inside Banner's mind and his fear of permanently dying while Hulk lives, all while having some very moody red coloring. Showing us different forms of lettering to convey the many characters' offscreen speech bubbles is very inventive. One of the best parts for the artwork is showing the fight between the inner Hulk and controlled Hulk, with great detail and inventive action. Special mention to the controlled Hulk ripping off its hand when trapped, using an Iron Man drone's hand as a substitute and keep on fighting. The debut of a new volume always needs to do something that will keep people interested and wanting to read more, so Hulk Vol. 5 #1 does just that with great writing elevating the drama and characters and artwork showing off great action scenes. Over all: 100%

Top list so far for 3rd set of comics:

1. Hulk Vol. 5 #1

2. The Yellow Kid

The Yellow Kid

One of the first and most influential recurring comic strip characters, The Yellow Kid was created by Richard F. Outcault. Having the strips published in both Joseph Pulitzer's New York World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal, Outcault's strip series ran from 1895 to 1898. The title character, actually named Mickey Dugan, was a poor kid who lived in the slums of Manhattan. He wore an oversized yellow nightshirt and is bald and snaggle-toothed, but still had a fun outlook on life. Each strip would depict him and his alley friends taking part in fun adventures like helping set up a charity drive, learning to box, or traveling throughout Europe. Most of the strips would be one entire event depicting Dugan and his friends taking part in something with descriptions and word balloons explaining things or making jokes, while a few did have smaller consecutive events but still having the descriptions and other writing. What makes the adventures of Dugan and his friends so important to the history of comic books is that it was one of the first in the country to have a recurring cast with a story each strip, being published on Sundays regularly, and having the first use of speech balloons in America. While the stories are entertaining, Outcault's motive was to inform and teach the readers about people, and especially kids, in poverty, thus give them sympathy rather than judgment. For a comic strip from the 1890s, the depiction of black kids is shown positively for the most part, as while they're drawn stereotypically and often written as not as intelligent they're depicted playing alongside Mickey and the other white kids and have good personalities. Being nearly 130 years old, The Yellow Kid still works really well, the art looks really good, the messages are still important, and the characters are entertaining. Over all: 100%

Top list so far for 4th set of comics:

1. The Yellow Kid

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

After the death of Chadwick Boseman, it would have been impossible to try to do a sequel to the original Black Panther without their feeling something missing. Fortunately, and surprisingly, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever not only gives us a really good movie but is also a great tribute to the late actor. This sequel and MCU entry, it being the 30th film and last movie entry of Phase 4, sees Wakanda being threatened by another secret kingdom rich with vibranium, though being underwater and led by Namor. Shuri, T'Challa's younger sister, must learn to figure out how to protect both her kingdom and a young scientist that Namor wants as she takes over the mantle of Black Panther. Returning to direct and cowrite alongside Joe Robert Cole, Ryan Coogler doesn't just make a well made superhero film, but also a well crafted political thriller with great action sequences. Boseman is greatly missed and the film manages to pay huge tributes to him and his character but is done in a way that feels therapeutic and cathartic. The biggest flaw is probably the scenes dealing with Everett Ross and the reveal that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine is his ex-wife and head of the CIA due to them dragging a bit. There are really good effects, especially in showing Namor's underwater kingdom and his flight capabilities, though often there are obvious green screen effects and it's obvious that having too many projects in one year does affect aspect to their projects such as the cgi. The movies's cinematography from Autumn Durald Arkpaw is exquisite at showing how different many of the locations are, the music from Ludwig Goransson enhances many scenes while Rihanna belts out an incredibly passionate song deserving of an Oscar nomination, and its editing from Michael P. Shawver, Kelley Dixon, and Jennifer Lame all give the film a quick and well paced feel. Returning and new cast members all give strong performances, whether it's Letitia Wright as Shuri or Angela Bassett giving such a passionate performance as Queen Ramonda that she was given an Oscar nomination, or Tenoch Huerta Mejia as the ever imposing Namor and Dominique Thorne as Riri Willians who becomes the Iron Man inspired Ironheart. Phase Four of the MCU has been one of the franchise's most challenging eras due to how many projects they've churned out at once between the movies, shows, and specials, but Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is a strong entry that not only takes a silly character like Namor and makes him serious but is a wonderful tribute to one of the best actors the MCU ever had. Over all: 100%

2022 top list so far:

1. Top Gun: Maverick

2. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

3. The Black Phone

4. Nope

5. The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent

6. The Northman

7. The Batman

8. Pearl

9. Lightyear

10. Dog

11. Everything Everywhere All at Once

12. X 2022

13. Scream 2022

14. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

15. Bullet Train

16. Halloween Ends

17. Thor: Love and Thunder

18. Jurassic World: Dominion

19. Black Adam

20. Sonic the Hedgehog 2

21. Uncharted