Man want to feel wanted, useful. Mostly by woman, in the loincloth, but also, later, by family. This feeling at center of The Croods, new animated movie. Croods not too complicated. Kind of like cross between Ice Age and Year One, in some ways. Characters move in funny quadruped/biped hybrid gait, and seem to have invented parkour. But Croods tell pleasant story about family, utility of man, and letting go.



Movie open several millions of years ago, which definitely throw Sarah Palin and others for loop. Earth is crazy and inhospitable place, like South to liberals. Croods are cave family. Like, literally. Dad Grug (Nicolas Cage) have unibrow that would impress Anthony Davis. Grug take care of family, which consist of feral baby, stupid son Thunk (Clark Duke) and headstrong daughter Eep (Emma Stone). There is wife, too, Ugga (Catherine Keener), though she do nothing. Almost forgot about her. Oh, and mother-in-law Gran (Cloris Leachman), who is kind of like meth addict version of that witch from Brave. Grug secretly always hopes she die, which is funny.

Grug have many mottos like, “Darkness brings death, we know this!” And, “Never not be afraid!” Fear is not the little death for Grug. It keep him alive, he feel. Grug only let family out of cave to help him hunt. Eep, though, seek broader social horizon and meaning in life, which is very confusing to Grug. Eep sneak out, meet Guy (Ryan Reynolds), who have much better hair, less sloping forehead. Guy have baby sun! (This turn out to be called fire.) Guy also have animal belt that talk, which very confusing.

Guy no live in cave, which also confuse Grug. Guy then talk of strange place, “tomorrow,” and foretells of end-of-world prophesy, which he maybe picked up from Roland Emmerich movie? Anyway, group separated from cave, so then road trip happen, and crazy things. Grug maybe realize some rules primitive, so he tries to find some change he can believe in.

Croods co-directed by Chris Sanders — who make Lilo & Stitch and How To Train Your Dragon, both with big heart — and Kirk DeMicco, who make Space Chimps. Space Chimps piece of crap, but hey, everyone gotta eat. As on Dragon, Sanders use Roger Deakins as “visual consultant” on Croods. Good decision. This guy Deakins smart. Helps give film nice look. Croods have fantastic array of colorful creatures. Croods kind of like a Flintstones-era cousin of The Lorax or something. Its 3-D also not just rip-off — good in scenes of scope, and inventive with dust particles tracking toward camera.

One problem with Croods is no real fear of death, or looming consequence. Lots of slapstick-y bits in battles with creatures. (Could use more nut shots, though.) Some slip-ups in wording, too. Grug at one time tell Eep she “grounded,” but how that different than her normal life? Croods could be smarter, or have stronger inner logic. It could explore more confused reaction of Croods to entire new world. But it find fun mostly in family dynamic, so viewer not mad.

Some of words characters say funny (“Stay inside the family kill circle!”), and voice acting good. Funny to think about Cage going apeshit with grunts and such in booth. Or maybe he was recorded leaving Romanian nightclub? Anyway, Croods tell simple story but do it well. Smaller people like it most. Just no get them talking animal belt for birthday — world not need that. For full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. (20th Century Fox/DreamWorks, PG, 96 minutes)

Filmmaker Michel Gondry has always been a visionary of visual style, dating back to his groundbreaking work in the music video format. Less noted is his soft spot for underclass underdogs and those existing on the margins of society, as found in his features like Be Kind Rewind and The Science of Sleep. That predilection gets a more direct exercising in what may be Gondry’s most narratively straightforward and direct movie yet, which charts a city bus ride home for a group of New York high schoolers on the last day of class before summer break.



The result, The We and the I, is the product of a two-year collaboration between Gondry and actual students at a Bronx after-school arts program, and it’s sort of like Laurent Cantent’s 2008 Palme d’Or winner The Class by way of Steven Soderbergh’s minor canon social-portrait riffs, like Full Frontal and The Girlfriend Experience. Marked by a flurry of adolescent energy, where kids can’t not talk for five seconds, the film works more as a caffeinated conveyance of feeling than an actual plotted story.

When the spring semester school bell rings for the last time, a motley crew of teenagers pile aboard and basically take over a city bus. The driver (Mia Lobo) occasionally attempts to enforce some discipline, but is also co-opted by free pizza, leaving other passengers to fend for themselves as the voluble kids gossip, gloat, brag and bully. What ensues is a litany of lover’s quarrels, clowning of old people, text messaging drama, “Sweet 16” party planning, games of truth-or-dare and general bickering, shining a light on rivalries, anxieties and friendships both true and perhaps significantly less so.

The We and the I has the potential to be like an emotionally combustible cross between Kids and the self-contained parts of Speed, but there’s a counterbalancing innocence to Gondry’s film — Young MC’s “Bust a Move” opens the movie, and other old-school hip hop flavors interstitial bits and editorial pivot points — and the violence that crops up never escalates past a certain point. There’s no charged threat of doom here, in other words, for both better and worse.

Instead, Gondry aims for an artful, scrambled blend of youthful connection and hormonally charged carousing. Cinematographer Alex Disenhof’s inventive camerawork and framing — sometimes incorporating telltale Gondry in-camera cross-cuts of stories being told — matches the inquisitive and boisterous nature of his subjects. The dialogue is sometimes funny (“The Dalai Lama says you gotta be fearless in matters of food as well as love — I have an email from my sister saying he said that”) and occasionally piercing and sad (“You three are the only ones that talk to me, and it’s never anything I wanna hear”), but mostly it’s less deeply insightful than just loud, jocular and unending — just like much real teenage conversation, in essence.

What the non-professional cast lacks in experience they for the most part make up for with raw, unfiltered charisma. But, in its third billed chapter, or act, when the movie pivots into a bit of moralizing payoff, the lack of formal training undercuts some of The We and the I‘s putative lessons learned. Still, an off-speed curveball with less inherent narrative appeal from Gondry is interesting in ways that dozens of more rigorously plotted films aren’t. Plot your route and purchase your fare accordingly. For the full, original review, from ShockYa, click here. (Paladin/108 Media, unrated, 100 minutes)