Made to look like a single continuous shot with no edit cuts, 1917 is a unique spectacle that builds upon the techniques used in similar films, such as Birdman. As director Sam Mendes follows these two soldiers, the sound design and natural lighting work together to sell the illusion of a continuous take. To get through these treacherous locations, which were scattered all across the United Kingdom, the camera crew had to rely on many forms of transportation from trucks to cranes to Steadicams. The camera would even be unhooked from one crane and then hooked onto another while the film’s still rolling.
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This was no easy task for the set designers either, as models for every set had to be built to plan out the blocking and figure out how to work around the filming equipment. They had to know based on the length of every scene exactly how long each set should be, which meant in total 5,200 feet of trenches were built. When it came to actually filming these ambitious scenes, there were some days when the weather would shut down production because every shot had to look consistent—even a tiny bit of sunlight could be catastrophic. While other films have utilized this gimmick, no other has done it at this scale, and it’s guaranteed that more filmmakers from here on out will pick up on Mendes’ innovative techniques.

R (LV​)
Action/Historic
1 hr. 59 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
​Watch it to feel SAD and AFRAID.

This ambitious study on the unexpected virtue of ignorance tells its story with what is made to look like one long continuous take without any edit cuts. The clever tricks utilized to pull off this illusion included time-lapses to transition to a different time of day and letting objects move across the frame to hide swipe transitions between cuts. These shots lasted anywhere between 9-16 minutes long, and 90% of the film was digitally altered in some way, such as by removing the camera crew from the mirrors the actors constantly looked into. These mirrors were essential to achieve Iñárritu’s vision because they helped crop the actors without needing to cut or change the camera position, doubling as narrative symbolism to represent the ego of whoever is looking into those mirrors.
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Besides being an endeavor for the production crew, this narrative style was also a challenge that stretched the skill of the cast. Michael Keaton and Edward Norton both act their hearts out when they’re together, while Emma Stone delivers a monologue that’s guaranteed to ignite goosebumps. Yet there’s so much more that makes this movie so great: the dialogue is brilliant, the musical drum score is awesome, and the cinematography is among the most gorgeous ever put to film. There’s just so much about Birdman that makes it everything a movie should be, while also being a needed push for the potential of art.

R (DLSV​)
Comedy/Drama
1 hr. 59 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to LEARN.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY.

This is certainly the worst of all the Toy Story movies, yet Toy Story 4 still continues the series’ tradition of revolutionizing the animation industry with its technological breakthroughs. The toy characters of course all have their familiar toy-like ways of moving, with the new challenges added from the new set of characters, including Bo Peep’s elaborate stunts, the awkward Forky, the plushy Ducky and Bunny, the creepy Gabby Gabby, and her ventriloquist dummy henchmen. But the animation achievements are far more ambitious than that: The lights from the sun and the carnival all look scarily realistic, which in turn makes the textures on the toys, with all their minuscule scratches, look more lifelike than actual live-action does.

​When creating the antique store, over 10,000 items were built with varying degrees of aging; to complete the atmosphere, new software was developed to create the cobwebs. The camera further pushed for the photorealism by using filming techniques previously only used in live-action; this doesn’t just include the handheld camera system used in previous Pixar films, but also the imitated look of an anamorphic lens. These techniques mean in the near future, the line between animation and live-action could blur to the point where the two sides become indistinguishable from each other. These ambitious strides in utilizing the computer to recreate the real world prove how much more room for growth this beloved franchise has potential for still.

​G
Comedy/Fantasy
1 hr. 43 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
​Watch it to feel HAPPY, SAD, and AFRAID.

It had been eleven years since the second movie, meaning the target audience of the first Toy Story, that being kids born in the early 1990s, were now ready to start college, just like Andy in this movie. Although Toy Story 3 still carries the same old issues of having no logical sense from the past two movies, there are still plenty of wonderful merits at play. For starters, the technology finally passed the point of creating realistic human characters that didn’t appear uncanny, with more controls in each character model than ever before. Yet even with this freedom of giving an impressive range of facial expressions, all the characters, particularly Spanish Buzz and Lotso the teddy bear, still presented their own unique animation challenges.

​Better still, Pixar revolutionized a new system for creating the fabric for clothes, which was important because this movie had three times as many toys as the very first movie. Even the use of lights, camera, and audio was quite ambitious for an animated film, seeing how they all stylistically harkened back to other more mature Hollywood genres, such as prison movies or film noir, while still keeping the playful, adventurous, at times dangerous tone that a Toy Story movie should have. The finished product ended up making multiple generations of people cry, because, in a way, the series had truly grown up with its original audience, and it was time to say goodbye.

G
Comedy/Fantasy
1 hr. 40 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to feel HAPPY, SAD, and AFRAID.

Toy Story 2 had to preserve what made Toy Story an instant classic, which wasn’t easy considering the first movie already shook up the entire animation industry. Yet this sequel became an excellent showcase of how much the CGI technology had improved in only four years. The scope is much greater this time around, with the toy characters now going through an apartment complex’s air vents, into a toy store, and on airplane tires! Also noteworthy is the video game-based opening scene where Buzz Lightyear goes on a mission to another planet—a sequence containing multiple lighting and rendering effects the first movie couldn’t achieve.

​Then of course there’s the animation of the toys; every new toy character moves in a way that’s true to the material they’re made from while also matching their personality, the Barbie dolls perhaps being the most hilarious example of the animators’ talent! Though even that wasn’t as tricky as animating the humans, especially since there were more that had to be created in the backgrounds, and with more detail. As a bonus, the adventurous music adds some unexpected emotion backed up by the heart-wrenching song, “When She Loved Me” by Sarah McLachlan. All these components ultimately helped this sequel surpass the quality of the original in virtually every way, proving that animated films could be just as mature as a live-action movie made for adults.

G
Comedy/Fantasy
1 hr. 32 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY and SAD.

It’s the very first fully computer-animated motion picture, but Toy Story mostly sticks out for its wonderful appeal to anyone of any age. With this movie being the first of its kind, the animators only could do what was possible with the technology available, meaning the architecture had to be made mostly from straight lines touched up with lights and texture. As far as making these toys move, it was tricky for the animators to find points of reference, since toys can’t move in real life. So one of the ingenious techniques they used to help figure out the movements of the green army men was to nail shoes on boards and film themselves walking in them—just a taste of Pixar’s immense creativity.

​​Yet even that wasn’t nearly as difficult as animating the humans or the dog, which looked impressive for the time, but the technology still wasn’t quite ready to create appealing humans or animals. There clearly was a lot that Pixar had to prove in this revolutionary motion picture of theirs, but the real reason it became so beloved immediately was because the story always came first in the production. Since the computer was used as a tool rather than the centerpiece of the film’s existence, everyone can now enjoy the privilege of laughing and crying from this lovable warm-hug of a movie that in turn shook up the animation industry forever.

G
Comedy/Fantasy
1 hr. 21 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to feel HAPPY.

While John Krasinski originally didn’t plan on a Quiet Place sequel, he still picked up on the success of his horror smash-hit by building on all that it had the potential for, including the possibility of this concept turning into a franchise. The expansion of this world devastated by an alien invasion is such a keen exercise in allowing the setting to dictate what the characters’ personalities and struggles are like, particularly in how others outside the movie’s main family were affected. The family by the way is now deprived of their familiar resources at the farm and is stretched beyond their limit, the deaf daughter, Regan, most of all. While this sequel isn’t nearly as focused on silent communication as the first movie, Regan takes on more of a protagonist role to inspire other girls, women, and the entire Deaf community.
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This form of entertainment is accessible to everyone, with large action set pieces that required a lot more hands-on work than the first movie. The open-endedness of the finale likewise proves that there’s still more room for this concept to grow into a third installment, or perhaps even a television series. But even if those don’t ever happen, A Quiet Place Part II shall solidify its legacy as an ideal blockbuster to set the standards for how to create effective popcorn entertainment while also crafting a narrative that delves into the psychology of loss and survival.

PG-13 (V)
Horror/Sci-fi
1 hr. 37 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to feel AFRAID.

A Quiet Place only has 2-3 minutes of dialogue, with a screenplay of only 67 pages, but it still works tremendously as a blockbuster that continues to challenge what defines popcorn entertainment. Its post-apocalyptic world is built with some frightening sound effects, dark lighting, and a slow-moving camera that are masterfully implemented to generate a sense of urgency. It’s a genius work of utilizing ambiance instead of dialogue to tell the story, and it had proven so effective that the audience in the movie theater was reportedly too afraid to eat their popcorn, thus making noise, while watching the movie.
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When John Krasinski was brought on to direct, write, and star in this groundbreaking exercise of orchestrating thrills, he pulled greatly from his own experience raising his newborn daughter. His efforts with this hefty project grew even more personal when his casting decisions relied on instinct rather than auditions, as his decision to cast his wife Emily Blunt to play his character’s wife added to the impact of the film’s major events. Also in this cast was Millicent Simmonds, a deaf actress who played the deaf daughter, and she along with a deaf coach on set ensured that all ASL communication between the family was clear and accurate. Ultimately, no movie exists quite like this one, and no movie may ever be quite like it either. Except of course, for its sequel.

PG-13 (V)
Horror/Sci-fi
1 hr. 30 min.

Watch it for FUN.
Watch it to THINK.
Watch it to feel AFRAID.