The Civilized Wild

 Wikipedia prefaces The Wild Robot as a survival film. I think it is a coming-of-age film. A robot – Rozzum (Roz) 7134 (Lupita Nyongo) is shipwrecked on an island wilderness. Looking for a controller, Roz figures out the ways of animals and their language too, but draws no empathy except from a somewhat conniving fox Fink (Pedro Pascal). An unlikely bond with a gosling – Brightbill (Kit Connor) – leads to the formal definition of a mission objective – to teach Brightbill to eat, to swim and to fly – in other words to be a parent. But bringing up a gosling much like bringing up a human child is no easy task, and both the robot regimen as well as the formative gosling undergo a makeover and find some true sense of purpose and lives well led. An interesting watch, expectedly heartwarming, good for a break, not a Dreamworks masterpiece

14.5/20

The Sound of Silence

Lupita Nyongo is a sublime transcendental acting talent in A Quiet Place Day One. The sheer terror of an alien attack, the empathy for a pet (Frodo the cat) and for strangers, the all too human search for pizza in a dying world, the desperate scream with thunder in the background, the acceptance of one's lot and the ultimate sacrifice - she packs it all in in what often appears to be a solo performance. Eric (Joseph Quinn) does no disservice to his role as the harried student who overcomes his fear of water and does the rescue - while Samira (Sam aka Lupita) makes the ultimate sacrifice - to the soundtrack of Feeling Good (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feeling_Good). It is not a particularly harrowing nor easy watch, but the thespian skills of the lead set it apart

16.5/20

Checkmating Circumstance

With all the milk of human goodness as only Disney can serve up, but not missing out on much by the way of realism, Queen of Katwe traces the path of Phiona Mutesi (Madina Nalwanga) and her mother Nakku (Lupita Nyongo) as the former finds through the game of chess a way out of poverty and self-discovery. An intense movie with much ups and downs that mercifully avoids unrealistic victories

15/20

Forests, Friends and Foes

In this faithful-to-Kipling adaptation, The Jungle Book shows the true color (in the anthropomorphic animals) of the denizens of the forest. The friendly and collaborative bears and panthers, need to face up to the manipulative monkeys and the power-hungry tiger. Highest grossing movie (and that includes Hindi movies) for the year till date

16/20

We' re back

The universe is about to be taken over by the First Order. Led by Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), the First Order looks like it will overwhelm the Resistance, and then some. The experience of Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and General Leia (Carrie Fisher) come to bear, but it will require all the energy, resourcefulness and courage of Rey (Daisy Ridley), scavenger on the planet Jakku, Finn (John Boyega), the reformed stormtrooper, and Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) to save the day and find the way to Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). The seventh edition - and this time a sequel - Star Wars - The Force Awakens - is a perfect blend of familiar Star Wars elements while doing enough to keep the storyline fresh and what increasingly looks like timeless. And yes, no review of this movie would be complete without a mention of the resourceful droid BB8, that takes the droid quotient of the series to an all new level

15/20