Missing Morals in Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio shimmers with excited physical energy but never coordinates its new story ideas with its old moral responsibilities.
Musical
Cyrano (2021) – Glossing Over a Classic
Peter Dinklage is a powerful force for good in an otherwise listless adaptation that misinterprets whatever it doesn’t omit entirely.
Meet Me in St. Louis: The Us That Time Forgot
Meet Me in St. Louis is hope and happiness in movie form, using sorrow and shadows and more joy than usually fits in ten movies. It is Christmas, to me.
White Christmas: A Beautiful Bottom Line
White Christmas never fails to put me in the Christmas spirit, with a bit of finagling. It wears the season (and its production woes) on its satin sleeve.
Popeye: Robert Altman – De-Animator
Robert Altman’s adaptation of Popeye feels more like a redaction. His serious silly world is more interesting as a failure than enjoyable as a living cartoon.
Hello, Dolly! – Love, Inverted
Hello, Dolly! takes Gene Kelly’s penchant for grinning and perverts it with feel-bad romantic philandering. A charming play becomes a genre-killer.