The Good Dinosaur

Butch: If you ain't scared, you ain't alive.

I'm always willing to give Pixar movies the benefit of the doubt but this one was tough even for me. I'm a little surprised Pixar even released it with how many problems it had even on a conceptual level. In the trailer, we're pitched that this is an alternate timeline where dinosaurs were never wiped out and wound up evolving along with people. But in truth, this was really just a clumsy excuse to have a dinosaur be the main character. If you substituted anything else (foxes, dogs, robots), the story would have turned out the same. At its core, it's just a story about a boy who gets lost and has to find his way home. Unfortunately, it wound up as a worse, confused version of Finding Nemo.

The film opens with a dinosaur family on a farm. Arlo is the youngest son, small and scared on everything from small bugs to lighting storms. We spend far to long on the farm to establish just how a big a sissy Arlo really is but we never see anymore of dinosaur society than his family farm. As a result, not only is Arlo an exaggerated charicature, the world also feels sparse, with dinosaurs simply a warped reflection of human evolution. Even when events that should be important happen, they aren't given the weight they need to feel important. When the action finally does start a third of the way through the film, the lost Arlo and Spot, his pet human, are subjected to weird, slightly disturbing events that don't have any relevance to the overall story. It isn't until half way through that the story really picks up and then it suddenly transforms into a western. But by this point, we already know everything that's going to happen in the climax because we've been hit over the head with the foreshadowing so hard, we're in danger of a concussion.

Really I can find very little positive to say about this film. At its best, it's not terrible, but it is never funny, interesting or likable. Everything from the plot to the characters are clumsy and sophomoric. There are gaping holes in the logic behind the dinosaurs' evolution and society. However, if you come to Pixar for the animation, there is some beautiful landscape work throughout the movie. Other than that, it's best suited for children. In my mind, it ties with Cars 2 as the worst Pixar film to date.

Room

Jack: When I was small, I only knew small things. But now I'm five, I know everything!

Room, directed by Lenny Abrahamson, tells an incredible story of 5-year-old Jack (Jacob Tremblay) and his mother Joy (Brie Larson) trapped in a room for 7 years by Joy's kidnapper, Old Nick (Sean Bridgers). Jack, who has lived his whole life in this room, doesn't even believe the rest of the world exists while Joy becomes increasingly concerned about their situation and seeks escape now that Jack is old enough to help. But all plans of escape are risky and even if they get out, the world may not be what they remember.

SPOILERS AHEAD

One of the reasons this movie works so well, aside from the much praised acting by Larson and Tremblay, is that it is told from the perspective of Jack, who is too young to fully understand the horror of what is happening. He has an acceptance born of ignorance that prevents the whole thing from sinking into despair and allows the audience to see the parallel between Jack leaving the room with only his mother to the wider world filled with people and possibilities to the journey everyone makes as they grow. We see Jack try to cling to the familiar but unhealthy room he was raised in before finally growing with his new surroundings. What he is left with is a mishmash of the imaginative worldview he was forced to adopt in Room with a slow acceptance of things like trees and grandparents and pancakes.

Joy brings to life the power of the mother-son relationship that is the core of the film. She needs her son as much as he needs her and they both act selfishly toward the other and make great sacrifices in turn. Her trip home is especially difficult as her parents have divorced and moved during her absence and the normalcy she craves is something she can no longer appreciate. Seeing her through her young son's eyes is at times heartbreaking but Jack became the core of her existence during her captivity and her love for him is obvious. The film accepts that there is no easy answer for their recovery and we are left with an ending that is hopeful but not certain.

Room is a truly moving film in part because of how understated and real it feels. It is as intimate as its surroundings and exemplifies not just what it is to survive but what is to live. The subject matter is treated with enough sensitivity to be accessible to a wider audience so if you are interested in films about childhood and parent-child relationships, I highly recommend this one.