My annual mid-ish year round-up of acclaimed films I missed includes two dramas about green energy coming to rural Spain and a heartrending doc about Alzheimer's.
This year I wanted to go to a movie on my birthday and told my wife I wanted to see the killer robot movie, meaning M3GAN. When we got to the theater she was surprised we were seeing this and not "the Ultraman movie." There's a new Ultraman movie?!" I replied.
I enjoyed M3GAN but I'm ashamed I wasn't aware that there was a SHIN ULTRAMAN screening that night. The movie gods were trying to help. I'll rectify that error soon.
Unfortunately, I was working evenings when SHIN ULTRAMAN’s screenings happened in January, so I had to wait for it to come to Blu-ray. Happily, this gave me ample time to catch up with ULTRA Q and the original ‘60s ULTRAMAN series to prepare for it.
Happy to see SHIN ULTRAMAN get some attention here. I also got such a huge kick out of Anno’s SHIN KAMEN RIDER, which came out in late spring (and is currently streaming on Prime), that it sent me down a tokusatsu rabbit hole I spent much of the summer entrenched in.
As you say, the effects of SHIN ULTRAMAN are not meant to be seamlessly convincing, but modern takes on the effects of the classic series (which you can find on TUBI). Plus, the endless model kits in the background of all the shots at SSSP headquarters are a delight.
Yeah that was a weird discovery after finding out I missed my theatrical window for it. But all the recent MTV Docs wind up almost in the middle of the night without notice on Paramount+ after they wrap up their runs.
As an unprofessional critic, I would say not weak, but definitely not strong. Only things I'd really go to bat for are John Wick 4, Knock at the Cabin, Barbie, and Enys Men. (Oh, and Influencer [which is 2022 or 23 depending on whether you look at first festival date or Shudder streaming release] and was so surprisingly solid.)
That said, there's plenty on the horizon out of fall film festivals and Oscar runs that I'm excited for. New films from Todd Haynes, Aki Kaurismaki, Michael Mann (!!!), Jeff Nichols, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Hayao Miyazaki, Errol Morris, and Jonathan Glazer. Saltburn from Emerald Fennell looks nuts, and I'm looking forward to Maestro. Most important of all: Killers of the Flower Moon! And hell, that John Woo dialogue-free action film Silent Night might actually come out before the end of the year on a streamer, I see it just got its MPA rating.
Oh yeah there's plenty to look forward to - I'd put The Boy and the Heron up there with Killers of the Flower Moon as two of my most anticipated of the decade!
The butchering is so arted-up that it didn’t register with me until you mentioning just now. You’ll be okay, I think.
This year I wanted to go to a movie on my birthday and told my wife I wanted to see the killer robot movie, meaning M3GAN. When we got to the theater she was surprised we were seeing this and not "the Ultraman movie." There's a new Ultraman movie?!" I replied.
I enjoyed M3GAN but I'm ashamed I wasn't aware that there was a SHIN ULTRAMAN screening that night. The movie gods were trying to help. I'll rectify that error soon.
Unfortunately, I was working evenings when SHIN ULTRAMAN’s screenings happened in January, so I had to wait for it to come to Blu-ray. Happily, this gave me ample time to catch up with ULTRA Q and the original ‘60s ULTRAMAN series to prepare for it.
Happy to see SHIN ULTRAMAN get some attention here. I also got such a huge kick out of Anno’s SHIN KAMEN RIDER, which came out in late spring (and is currently streaming on Prime), that it sent me down a tokusatsu rabbit hole I spent much of the summer entrenched in.
As you say, the effects of SHIN ULTRAMAN are not meant to be seamlessly convincing, but modern takes on the effects of the classic series (which you can find on TUBI). Plus, the endless model kits in the background of all the shots at SSSP headquarters are a delight.
if you're checking this around October/November 2023: The Eternal Memory's on Paramount+ (along with a lot of other surprise documentaries).
It's an MTV Documentary! (Which makes it Viacom which makes it Paramount, I suppose.)
Yeah that was a weird discovery after finding out I missed my theatrical window for it. But all the recent MTV Docs wind up almost in the middle of the night without notice on Paramount+ after they wrap up their runs.
"Perhaps American audiences don’t have the built-in fondness for a superhero who rose to prominence on a popular Japanese TV series in 1966"
but we do have a fondness for the American version that aired in the 80s!
Dammit! I should have recognized that!
So is this genuinely a weak year for film so far? Feels like it to me but I’m not the professional critic.
As an unprofessional critic, I would say not weak, but definitely not strong. Only things I'd really go to bat for are John Wick 4, Knock at the Cabin, Barbie, and Enys Men. (Oh, and Influencer [which is 2022 or 23 depending on whether you look at first festival date or Shudder streaming release] and was so surprisingly solid.)
That said, there's plenty on the horizon out of fall film festivals and Oscar runs that I'm excited for. New films from Todd Haynes, Aki Kaurismaki, Michael Mann (!!!), Jeff Nichols, Sofia Coppola, Yorgos Lanthimos, Hayao Miyazaki, Errol Morris, and Jonathan Glazer. Saltburn from Emerald Fennell looks nuts, and I'm looking forward to Maestro. Most important of all: Killers of the Flower Moon! And hell, that John Woo dialogue-free action film Silent Night might actually come out before the end of the year on a streamer, I see it just got its MPA rating.
Oh yeah there's plenty to look forward to - I'd put The Boy and the Heron up there with Killers of the Flower Moon as two of my most anticipated of the decade!