The Dark and the Wicked Photo: RLJE Films/Shudder Matt Patchesīlow Out is streaming on Showtime Anytime and available to rent on Amazon and Apple. Through it all, De Palma uses long-360-degree camerawork, God’s eye views, split-diopter lenses, and eye-popping color to crank up the suspense. Teaming up with a prostitute who was in the car at the time, and while being hunted by the shadowy figure behind the murder, the sound engineer jumps through hoops to substantiate his sonic evidence. The police think the car wreck was an accident proof on Travolta’s magnetic sound tape, which he plays and replays and reconstructs with meticulous strain, suggests a hidden gunman was behind the death. With more in common with Klute and The Parallax View than the Hitchcockian riffs that De Palma became known for, Blow Out finds a young John Travolta in over his head when a night out with his microphone leads him to witness and record the assassination of a rumored presidential candidate. The choice turns an average mystery it one of the essential thrillers of the 1980s. Writer-director Brian De Palma replaces the curious eye of a swingin’ ‘60s fashion photographer for the tuned ear of a B-movie sound designer in this loose remake of Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film, Blowup. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride (ha). It might not make you think deeply like Pixar films often do, but it will help you embrace your inner child’s boundless imagination. I am going on record to say that Cars 2 is the superior Cars movie. It’s all the delight of a spy movie, but with the added fact of Oh right, they’re all cars! This means that Finn McMissile launches wires from his tires in order to suspend himself over a secret meeting on a far off oil rig! That the cars have giant guns built somewhere into their bodies! That the car chase sequences are honestly the best car chase sequences I’ve seen in action movies, because the stakes are so much higher! Yes, there is a Pope, which once again raises questions about the greater Cars universe, but Agent Holley Shiftwell just sprouted wings and a jet engine, so I’m more focused on how cool that is. Cue the hijinks, cue the hilarity, cue the really cool action sequences. The setup of Cars 2 already lends itself to humor: after accompanying racer Lightning McQueen on an international racing tour, goofy Mater finds himself caught up in a James Bond-esque spy mission, where suave agent Finn McMissle believes Mater to be an American spy in deep, deep undercover. I found myself questioning every little world-building detail: If you are born a truck, is your destiny just to ferry cars around inside your body till the end of time? Why do cars lock themselves if their insides are their organs? Why are there restaurants and cafes if all they consume is oil?īut with Cars 2, there is so much chaos and unbelievable plot elements that I can safely just tuck all the aforementioned overarching world-building questions in the back of my mind and just relish in its absurdity. The first Cars doesn’t quite work for me is because it is too rooted in reality. The original Cars put me to sleep, but I found myself enthralled by Cars 2. But upon this rewatch, I learned that I was wrong.
It’s been years since I’ve watched either of them, and I was pretty confident in my assessment that while the original Cars was Just Fine, Thank You Very Much, Cars 2 was just a bunch of dumb jokes that did not make canonical sense in the greater Cars mythos. This weekend, I enjoyed a double feature of Cars and Cars 2. I want to formally rescind every critical comment I’ve ever made on the behalf of Cars 2. Here are a few of the movies we enjoyed over the weekend, and what you might enjoy watching throughout the week as well. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and Lee Isaac Chung’s Minari was rewarded with the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language film following the controversial (and frankly bizarre) odyssey in the lead up to its nomination.Īside from the Awards however, there were a ton of movies and films available via streaming for the Polygon team to choose from. Chloé Zhao became the first Asian woman to win the Golden Globe for best director for the Frances McDormand-led drama Nomadland, Chadwick Boseman was posthumously rewarded Best Drama Performance for his role in George C. This weekend marked the 78th Golden Globe Awards, an historic ceremony not only for it having been the first to take place in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic but for those whose work was recognized.