Wednesday Season 1 (01.27.23)

You know the song and you know the schtick, even if you’re like me and haven’t actually seen them in anything before now. The Addams Family, iconic devotees of the macabre and morbid, have been staples of American pop culture for a shocking eighty-five years, inspiring generations of goths and many a zany fictional family in their ghastly wake. After being together for so long it is only natural for one to step away from their creepy clan now and then, which is what Wednesday Addams reluctantly does when she is forced to attend Nevermore Academy in the aptly titled Wednesday. As I said, I am no afficionado of the menacing ménage, but I am pretty certain that the quality and, more importantly, the tone of Netflix’s new show is more than worthy of its hellish heritage.

Jenna Ortega steps into the pigtails of Wednesday, and her performance is simply dreadful. I mean this, of course, in the way that Wednesday would use the word: To describe something exceptional and wonderful. She is fun to watch in a way that very few characters and actors are in any type of medium, consistently outshining (far from literally, of course) everyone and everything in her orbit (with the possible exception of Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia, who is not in the show much, but is equally as fantastic in every scene she is in). And who better to direct proceedings than Tim Burton, a man who has consistently proven to be the closest thing we have to an actual member of the Addams Family in this realm? Burton’s dour demeanor fits the world of Wednesday like a snug noose on a witch’s neck, and his deft directing elevates the tale beyond what it would have been otherwise. As equally as important to the show’s success is Danny Elfman, Burton’s joined-at-the-hip blood brother, who provides a predictably delicious soundtrack.

Incredible performances of the Addamses aside, the story of Wednesday isn’t really all that special. Without its leads, director and soundtrack the show would feel more akin to one of those dime-a-dozen made-for-teens dramas that the CW airs, albeit one of the better ones. The supporting characters are fine and the actors who portray them are good, but I couldn’t care less about any of them when they were doing things independently of Wednesday, and my mind would consistently wander whenever the show got into love-triangle territory. I could also never figure out just what the actual world of Wednesday was supposed to be; at first I thought the Addams Family was truly an anomaly in a relatively normal version of reality, but then some people appear claiming to be werewolves. Later I realize they really are werewolves, but they exist under the radar of regular humans. Oh wait, nope, regular humans are fully aware of them and distrust them. Trying to figure out the basic setting of Wednesday was really quite distracting.

But these things don’t matter much to me whenever Ortega as Wednesday was on screen. Everything else about the show could have been complete trash and I would still come back to watch her for another season. The Addams Family is in good hands, if Thing will forgive the turn of phrase.  

Wednesday season 1 is now available on Netflix.

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on January 27^th, 2023. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

 

Wildcat (01.13.23)

 

This Christmas my nephews bought me Minecraft so I could play it with them, and one of the first things I did in it was create my own ocelot. I’ve always wanted one, but unfortunately they are wild animals and are thus inadvisable to keep as pets (unless you are Salvador Dali—look up Babou if you don’t know Babou). Minecraft, zoos and documentaries such as Wildcat will have to suffice for my ocelot fix, as I am not a famous surrealist artist, but Amazon Prime’s Wildcat is much more than an excuse to watch a big cat do little cat things: Capable of switching from heartbreaking to uplifting on a dime, the story of Harry, Sam and Keanu is a worthy emotional ordeal that is beautifully done despite a couple of moments that seem a little performative as well as exploitative.

Harry is a twenty-something veteran of the war in Afghanistan who suffers from acute depression and PTSD. Looking for purpose, he finds himself in the Amazon, and there meets a conservationist named Sam. From there the couple takes it upon themselves to raise an abandoned ocelot kitten named Keanu with the end goal of eventually reintroducing him into the wild. Triumphant moments and heartbreak ensue because, as it turns out, raising an ocelot can be tough, especially when one of the adopted parents in question is often suicidal and almost always deeply depressed.

It’s a frighteningly candid look at mental illness, and one that can be quite uncomfortable at times, but it’s also one that is important to understand and impossible not to be sympathetic towards. In Keanu Harry finds redemption and purpose, but the road getting there is as bumpy as life can make it. I greatly enjoyed the real-life story of Wildcat, but there were also points where it seemed as if the camera people should have just put their stuff down and helped rather than letting Harry have largely unedited and unfiltered mental breakdowns for our “entertainment,” for lack of a better word. The film then goes on to suggest that our melancholy protagonist will be all right solely because of his experiences in the Amazon when years of therapy are undoubtedly still ahead of him. Harry and Sam are also either much more eloquent than I am or a couple of the things they said were previously written (or at least very well thought out) long beforehand, as a line or two can come off as slightly manufactured and rehearsed. But the vast majority of Wildcat is boldly genuine and heartfelt, and you will feel every moment of it.

A word to the wise—Wildcat is not an easy journey, nor is this R-rated film one that you should watch with kids or people sensitive to thematic elements. Self-harm and suicide is often discussed in frank terms, and let’s just say that Keanu was not the first baby ocelot that Harry tried to raise. A fun time solely devoted to feline shenanigans this is not, although the heavy moments are wonderfully balanced out by refreshingly joyful ones as well.

Wildcat is now available on Amazon Prime.

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on January 13^th, 2023. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/

Roald Dahl's Matilda: The Musical (01.06.23)

If Pink Floyd’s The Wall taught me anything, it’s that British children do not take kindly to disrespect from their educators. Perhaps I learned this lesson earlier from Roald Dahl’s Matilda, but if I did I don’t remember it. I was pretty sure the story had something to do with a hammer-tossed girl and maybe some psychic abilities, but other than that I went into Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical simply knowing that it was a story kids appreciated, and now I can see why: Justice against bullies, even if they are exaggerated and cartoonish bullies, is timeless and satisfying. Matilda: The Musical is certainly the latter and might just prove to be the former as well.

            As the 30-year-olds who routinely star in high school-set movies and television shows can tell you, centering a production on children characters played by actual children can be quite a challenge. There’s a big difference between appreciating your niece or nephew awkwardly stumbling through their two lines as a tree in the local elementary school’s Thanksgiving play and watching kids try and fail to be anything other than annoying on the screen, but I can happily say that is not the case with Matilda: The Musical. The kids in the cast do all the heavy lifting, and there is nary a weak link to be found. Especially impressive is Alisha Weir, Matilda herself, who shines with an adorable energy that is hard not to smile at. The adult cast is equally exceptional, particularly Emma Thompson as the horrible and hateful Miss Trunchbull, who is hard to look at and even harder to not wish immediate and painful death for.

            The musical aspects of the film translate surprisingly well from the show’s West End origins, and though there is really only one song that stuck with me (and stick with me it will for the rest of my life, if my mental soundtrack of the last few days is any indication), all of the musical numbers are a joy to behold in the moment. The lyrics are clever and never shy away from the exaggeratedly dour tone that the book is famous for, and the dance choreography is as brilliant as it is inventive. Not every musical can comfortably make the leap from the stage to the screen, but Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical does so with aplomb.

            As is the case with the original story, Matilda: The Musical could be a bit much for me at certain points, simply because how over-the-top the frank child abuse could be. Yes, the bullying is satirical and even Dickensian in its nature, but there’s no denying that Matilda mostly feels like the depressing beginning parts of Harry Potter without the magical school to escape to. But who am I to argue with the success of a classic? Matilda: The Musical successfully maintains the spirit of Roald Dahl’s novel, and if you liked the original you will love this one. Teachers, leave them kids alone.

            Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical is now available on Netflix.

 

This review was first published in The Keizertimes on January 6^th, 2023. Visit at http://keizertimes.com/