A Thanksgiving Double Feature: Lady Bird and Coco.

Over Thanksgiving, I was thankful to turn my attention to what I comfortably consider among the year's finest films, Lady Bird from Greta Gerwig, and Disney/Pixar's Coco. Stylistically, the two are practically nothing alike, one a snarky but sweetly delivered time capsule of emotional teenage turbulence, the other a whimsical and tearjerking adventure of heritage and music, and while both are hilarious, they are so in markedly different ways. But I found this particular match-up to actually be a perfect juxtaposition, as both deal in weighty and complex issues of family and parentage, whose oddities and alternating pessimism/optimism served as a great counter balance to each other. Both are terrific works, and I'll leave my thoughts on both today.

Brief thoughts on Cars 3.

With Disney and Pixar's upcoming Thanksgiving release of Coco, it's time I turned my head to Pixar's other big release of the year, Cars 3, which made its way to Blu-Ray recently. For the record, I didn't have any desire to actively seek this movie out. I'm not even sure why Pixar finds it such a big deal, to be honest. For a studio responsible for some of the greatest animated features ever made, to see them continually spin their wheels (I apologize) on a franchise with little left to offer can be irritating. Why did we get three Cars movies before we got a second Incredibles? Personal feelings aside, how does the end result turn out?

Thor: Ragnarok movie review.

Out of all the A-listers in Marvel's ongoing cinematic universe, I doubt many would consider the Thor entries to be among their absolute favorites. In their infancy, Marvel faced a tough time integrating the Norse god of thunder with the likes of Iron Man and Captain America, as his fantastical vibe made it tough to make him feel at home with the rest of his crew. Knowing this, his first solo entry from Kenneth Branagh stripped him of his powers in order to humanize him, serving as a taste of things to come in later entries.

Unfortunately, its follow-up The Dark World is one entry that does not survive the test of time, feeling uncharacteristically generic among Marvel's portfolio, and even its attempts at gargantuan scale were burdened by an over-reliance on powerless audience surrogates. But with Guardians of the Galaxy proving that the universe could dive in to the surreal and fantastical, and be embraced in the meantime, it feels like Marvel is finally letting Thor have the movie he deserves, the joyously eccentric Ragnarok that serves as a fantastic retooling of the character, leaning us closer to what these films should have been in the first place.