The Lion king (2019) movie review - 400th Post.

The Lion King is my favorite film of Disney's Animation Classics. It's a jaw-dropping, absolutely beautiful movie, that combined the magical charm of Disney with the sweep of an epic Shakespearean story, to tell a simultaneously mature and whimsical tale of heritage lost and regained. It's a stunning showcase of hand-drawn animation, bringing the African savannah vividly to life, and features an amazing soundtrack. It was such a mammoth hit, it remained Disney's highest grossing film for 20 years until Frozen.

But Disney is in a busy period right now, where they've given some of their most popular animated films a live-action update, this year alone already giving us Dumbo and Aladdin. The quality has varied, but in the case of this new take on The Lion King, at least that had the guidance of director Jon Favreau, who already made high marks with 2016's The Jungle Book, a film that itself could stand independently of its inspiration. Maybe this could recapture the epic magic of that original film. Unfortunately, the second time out, the mighty Lion's roar feels very tired, feeling cheaply wheeled out like a run-down circus show.

Mid-Year capsule reviews.

With how often I've been seeing movies this year, and how busy I've been with other priorities, it's not always easy for me to find time to write my thoughts on a movie down. In fact, even for some movies I like, I'm not always compelled to give detailed thoughts (not everything is deserving of 1,000+ word write ups). But over the summer, I've seen a fair share of films. Some good, some bad, some great, and some horrible. And for those I haven't gotten around to until now, I'll go ahead and give some of them some token acknowledgement, with the mid-year return of capsule reviews. Enjoy!

Midsommar movie review.

The 2010's have seen a resurgence in the independent horror film, specifically auteur-driven horror, making for a refreshing deviation from the jump scare fodder that, until recently, had a chokehold on cinema showtimes. One of the companies to thank for this is A24, who in recent years have released several effective horror films, or at least if they weren't, they were at least more ambitious than the usual slasher thriller, with titles like The Witch and It Comes at Night.

But for my money, their biggest hit was newcomer Ari Aster's Hereditary, a deeply unsettling and terrifying movie that merged familial grief with psychological and supernatural dread, that I still attest is the decade's finest horror film. Now a year later, Aster is back with another unsettling horror, this time set amongst the summer solstice festivities of a Swedish village in Midsommar. This is definitely from the same man responsible for Hereditary, an even more ambitious, unsettling, heady, and at times surprisingly comical calling card, cementing him as a new master of the genre.