The Call of the Wild (2020)

I’ve never read this book. It’s about a dog and his human though, so sign me up.

I’m a sucker for any film that stars a pooch. The pooch in this film is computer animated. If this is a faithful adaptation of the novel it’s based on, I can see why.

This dog goes through a lot. With how vocal animal advocates are it’s easier to animate the dog, but there is an element missing with a fake dog.

This seems to be the trend. Many films have been relying on animated animals as I suppose it’s cheaper in a sense to have just animators as opposed to trainers, handlers, etc. I get it, but I’d much rather see a real life dog interacting with the actor. Anyway, this film also stars Harrison Ford.

There is a lot of action in this film. Most of the time our four legged friend is in some sort of danger and he has to figure out how to get out of it.

Our protagonist is Buck the dog who begins as the mayor’s dog before being stolen and sold to gold miners in the Yukon. He escapes and is adopted by friendly mailman named Perrault (Omar Sy). He remains with Perrault until the mailman ends up without a job and has to sell his entire sled team. Buck is then bought by a cartoonish fortune seeker (Dan Stevens) who abuses Buck and the other dogs. During these different parts of his journey he always encounters John Thornton (Ford) until Buck finally ends up in Thornton’s care.

Buck is cute and you root for him every step of the way. Ford is great as usual. The film is also visually stunning.

“The Call of the Wild” is a charming film. Ford seems to genuinely enjoy interacting with Buck even though he’s not actually there. Some moments are sad and tense, but it was fun to join Buck and Thornton on their wild adventure.

Ma (2019)

Teenagers make dumb decisions in a horror movie. Standard and expected.

“Ma” stars Octavia Spencer in a formulaic horror film. Spencer is great as always.

Spencer seems like she genuinely had fun playing Sue Ann, a woman who holds a grudge against those she went to school with. She has every right to feel that way as it turns out.

The film opens with Maggie (Diana Silvers) and her mother Diana (Juliette Lewis) moving back to Diana’s hometown. Maggie is nervous about starting at her new high school especially since it’s the middle of the school year.

Diana works as a waitress at the local casino so she’s not there to see Maggie off. Everything turns out alright, though. Maggie quickly becomes friends with some of the cool kids at school. As it’s a small town, the teens usually spend their weekends drinking. The problem? They need someone to buy the booze for them as they’re all underage.

Sue Ann works as a vet’s assistant and while walking one of the dogs in their care, she bumps into the teens outside a liquor store. She agrees to buy the booze for them and even invites them over to her house to party. She has a basement they can use. They’re allowed to come over whenever they want. The only thing they can’t do is go upstairs.

Inevitably, some members of the group have to go upstairs and things start unraveling.

As with any horror movie, the kids are dumb.

Ma threatens one of the boys with a gun and makes him strip. If the kids spend too much time away from Ma’s the more she texts and video calls them in an attempt to get them to come over. Still, the kids continue to go.

They’ll do anything to keep partying. After all Ma provides them with a place to party and all the booze they could possibly want.

Maggie is the only one seemingly creeped out by Ma and becomes hesitant to go. Once Ma realizes that these are the kids of the classmates that would bully her, she becomes more insistent in trying to get closer to them.

It’s possible that the kids are only stupid because their parents are. The parents make just as many dumb decisions. The father of one who finds out how much time his son has been spending at Ma’s house decides to take matters into his own hands instead of getting the authorities involved.

Spencer reunites with Tate Taylor who directed “The Help”. The film culminates into gory ending (gory compared to the rest of the movie, but not near as gory as others).

Ultimately the film is unsatisfying. Sue Ann’s motivation is justified. Still it seems rather silly to be targeting the children of those who bullied her.

 Not to mention that no one seems to have a single functioning brain cell.

2.5/5 stars ✨

The Invisible Man (2020)