So, this is the last one folks. I really contemplated what I wanted to do for this last blog, should I just do another movie? Should I do a short film week like last year? Yada Yada. However, I decided I would give brief summaries of my favorite movies of all time (not in order of favorites because I don’t really roll that way) to recommend to all of you! Kinda cheesy, but I thought this could be a kind of pay it forward type deal. I hope you take a few of these into consideration and put them on your list of movies to watch! 

Number One 

Megamind 

This was going to be the movie a reviewed in full this week if I had gone with that plan. I just really enjoy this movie and believe it still really holds up with its themes and overall message. If you bring this movie up talk for at least 20 minutes about it, then send you 3 links to video essays about the movie. I have done this to friends, sorry not sorry.  

But this movie follows the ‘super villain’ Megamind as he struggles with his identity as a supervillain without a superhero to fight anymore. He finds that he just wants to be a ‘normal’ person and how that’s what he has wanted all along. 

 

Number Two 

Good Will Hunting 

I quote this movie daily, it’s all over my Instagram, and I always recommend it to everyone I meet. My high school history teacher recommended this movie to me in my junior year when I started to question my academics and most importantly myself.  

Will Hunting is a janitor at MIT and solves a graduate-level, otherwise unsolved, mathematics problem. Without a ‘formal’ education and short temper, after he gets arrested the Professor of the Math class makes a deal with him to not be as harsh if he agrees to meet with therapist Sean Maguire. Sean and Will have such a unique relationship that they build from one another. This is a real tear-jerker! 

 

Number Three 

Perfect Blue 

Satoshi Kon has been a name that I had heard thrown around when talking about anime and decided to watch one of his most famous films (other than Akira). This movie is a psychological thriller through and through and I don’t recommend it unless I know someone would be comfortable watching it. There are quite a few graphic scenes in this movie, and I had to watch it multiple times to fully understand how the movie fit together to tell the story. This movie has some of the best takes on identity to this day, so I recommend it if these types of movies are your forte. 

Mima was a pop idol until she decided to follow her dreams of becoming an actress. In the world of acting, she must shed her ‘good-girl’ image and this has her struggling to find herself (leads her to go insane?). In the meantime, she has a stalker that wants her to go back to her pop idol ways thus sparking a lot of Mima’s identity crisis.   

 

Number Four  

Howl’s Moving Castle 

My full review of this movie is already on the blog! Find it here: 

https://sites.psu.edu/kennamoviereview/2021/11/05/33/ 

Number Five  

Her

I watched this movie for the first time with my ex-boyfriend from high school. I think this is one of Joaquin’s best movies in my humble opinion. This movie is very well-paced and has an interesting premise.  

Theodore writes personal letters for other people, and while grieving after his marriage ends, he decides to try the new AI system that pops up. He slowly builds his relationship with ‘Samantha’, and it evolves from companionship into love. 

Number Six  

Luca 

My full review is already on the blog! Find it here:  

https://sites.psu.edu/kennamoviereview/2022/02/22/from-one-gay-italian-to-another/ 

 

Number Seven (ending with lucky number seven) 

Grease 

This movie played on repeat every time I had a broken heart. This movie and its songs make me feel nostalgic about my childhood, my mom really likes this movie and originally showed it to me.  

This movie is set in the 1950s and follows Sandy and Danny as they traverse high school cliques and teenage love.  Musical numbers convey a lot of the plot, as this is an adaptation of a musical. 

I have many, many other movies that I think are some of my favorites (these are just a few) so let me know if you want more! 

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Megamind

Good Will Hunting

Perfect Blue

Howl’s Moving Castle

Her

Luca 

Grease

 

 

 

I went to the local movie theater with a newer friend of mine, that also has seen the first season of Jujutsu Kaisen, and we watched the prequel movie JJK(short for Jujutsu Kaisen) 0. I had been counting the days until this movie was released to the west and was so happy that it was being shown so close to campus. I love this series and have read most of the manga that is out at the moment. I did go into this movie knowing exactly what was going to be in it, I read the 0 volume of the manga a couple of months ago, but it was so cool to see it in theaters on such a big screen. This was the first time I had seen an anime movie in theaters, and it didn’t disappoint. It was, however, a real hit to my bank account compared to watching it at home from streaming services.  

Although funny story, my friend and I had specific seats in the theater but there were other people sitting in them when we arrived. I’m not the most confrontational, so I suggested we just sit in another set of seats. That later backfired as 20 minutes into the movie the people that had those seats finally showed up, and we had to find separate seats away from each other for the rest of the movie. Funny time.  

(SPOILER ZONE) So, the movie was really faithful to the source material, making a geek like me very happy. This version that we watched was the dub (in English), but the voice acting was better than I was expecting and didn’t throw me out of the watching experience. And dang was the watching experience great. The movie was so colorful and the palette in certain scenes was amazing. The action. Don’t get me started on the action MAPPA (the studio that animated the movie and animates a ton of other great stuff) never disappoints. It was just toe to toe full of jaw-dropping fight sequences that brought the manga pages to life. The main theme of the movie, at least in my humble opinion, is that of love. Kinda cheesy, however, you see two very distinct ‘loves’ in the movie. That of Yuta Okkotsu and Rika Orimoto, and I know I’m leaping bear with me Satoru Gojo and Suguru Geto. Just, this concept is so well done and shows up later in the anime as an underlying theme.  

If you have any time over summer break I suggest you watch JJK for the great animation. 😊 

10/10 

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My friends had a little watch party for this movie. I had seen a few trailers and thought it might be a little more childish (it’s a children’s movie Mckenna, of course, it will be) but I was pleasantly surprised. Both of my friends and I were crying by the end. It was so colorful and expressive. The characters were so cute and the design choice to make all of Meilin’s friends have distinct color schemes was such a good touch. All the characters in this movie are so well made? All the little pieces of world-building really fleshed out each character, even Tyler!  

SPOILER ZONE I do recommend that you watch the movie first before reading the rest of this review. It just came out this week on Disney plus, so you have been warned! I really liked the pacing of this movie, some of the other movies I’ve seen lately feel really long for no reason, but this had a good mix of climactic and toned-down moments. As well, I could relate to Meilin and her relationship with her mother. Disney has had a theme in these last few movies and I’m not complaining. I think one of the most gut retching moments that isn’t super played up is when Meilin first learns how to keep her Red Panda at bay, she thinks of the people she cares about most, but it’s not her parents, it’s her best friends. The little white lies she tells throughout the movie all compound starting from that one point in the story. It was very well executed, and this plot really kept me engaged the whole time. 

The fact that the whole thing that started the climax and tension was a concert for a boyband floored me. Like I said before, I could relate, and the fact that the girls are all obsessed with this boyband called 4-town took me back to when I was super into boybands (in 8th grade). Their parents wouldn’t let them go because of varying reasons, mostly saying its delinquent music, so they all hatch a plan to go to the concert. But the night of the concert is the same night as the red moon, the most important piece of the ritual to lock away Meilin’s Red Panda. All the symbolism and themes in this movie converge in the best way, I could write a whole paper on all the symbolism, theming, and allegories, but this is only a couple hundred-word review blog. The ending lesson of learning to adapt to and with the ‘bad’ parts of ourselves is accomplished with her understanding of where her parents come from and why they raised her as they did. I can’t stress this enough; this is a great movie and deserves your watch! 

10/10 

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So, while I was on spring break my family all went to see the new Batman movie. If you were to know anything about me, it’s that I have an uncanny knowledge of Batman and the history of the character. This was definitely a movie I was going to review. I had been a little hesitant because there have been so many different takes on Batman on the big screen, however, one of my friends really loves this movie and has seen it close to 9 times since its release. (Which was only about a week ago at the time of writing this). I’m a bit of a stickler on Batman movies in particular so I hope that you read on to hear what my opinions of ‘Battinson’ are! 

!SPOILER ZONE! Sorry but most of this review will be quite spoiler heavy. Overall, the movie was not bad, but not great. The aesthetic of the movie was good, and the world-building of Gotham was one of the best I’ve seen done by big-name movies. The grime and look of the city while Batman is just getting started is perfect to understand this version of Batman hasn’t been on the streets that long yet. Also, by far this is my favorite Bat-suit it gives me the feeling of the animated series from the early 2000s (also called The Batman), I’m just thankful it’s not so geometric like Bale’s Batman. But, other than the costumes and look of the movie it falls off for me. The plot was pretty lacking as dragged on at the same intensity the whole movie. Most of the acting felt like they were reading right from the script, it didn’t leave much room for actual acting. This made me a little disappointed because the cast is full of good actors! This movie just felt like it was bagging for a sequel, which is maybe why the story was the same intensity and that would be resolved in the next movie? This isn’t Dune though, so there isn’t a sequel to be a crutch for the story and plot lines. This movie just left me hanging and there are better Batman movies out there. I was excited when directors and producers said the plot was based on Batman: Year One by Frank Miller (This is a great read, by the way, most of Miller’s work is), but this a bit of a tease as there was very little in this movie that seems to be inspired by the comic.  

5/10 this might be my lowest-rated movie 🙁 

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Like most of the movies I’ve seen as of late, this was a request from my friend Kate. I probably watched this movie when it first came out but didn’t remember any of the plot. The fact that I knew all the words to one of the songs was a little scary though. I think it was on Tik Tok at some point… 

Disney movies from this time period were some of the best. Big hits like Lemonade Mouth, Let It Shine, Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure to name a few. Because it is a Disney movie some of the actors have been in other Disney films or shows, like Ross Lynch, Brady, who was in Austin & Ally when Teen Beach Movie came out. With the logistics out of the way, it’s review time. (SPOILER ZONE) So this movie is about two sophomores in high school, Brady and McKenzie, that want to live out an endless surfer summer together. This is until McKenzie’s Aunt comes to pick her up to take her to a private school for the last two years of high school. To save Brady’s heart McKenzie breaks up with him but get in an argument that leads McKenzie to surf on last time before leaving. However, she used a ‘special board’ that transports her and Brady into his favorite movie, Wet Side Story. This movie is set in 1962 and is a mixture of Romeo and Juliet with the cliques like in the movie Grease. The songs in this movie are cheesy, but the good kind of cheesy, there had to be a reason I knew the songs only after hearing them once. With the goal of getting out of the movie Brady and McKenzie are swept in by the musical numbers, and accidentally change the movie by getting the two leads to fall in love with them instead. So, with the new task of getting the movie back on track, they realize they are starting to become a part of the movie and have to quickly beat the villain of the movie, capitalism. Kidding, it’s just a resort Tycoon that wants to buy the local hangout, Big Momma’s, to build a beach getaway.  After being kidnapped by the villains the cast of the movie band together to rescue McKenzie and Brady, and the two leads end up falling for each other without the Brady and McKenzie putting in the work. Conflict solved, they both go back to the real world, and McKenzie tells her aunt she wants to stay for high school, happily ever after.  

It really is a classic Disney movie, and I’m glad I watched it again. 

8/10 

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Here it is folks, another one of my favorite movies is on the chopping block. Now you might be asking, “McKenna don’t you love really ‘edgy’ movies?”, or “McKenna how could a movie about fish boys relate to you in any way?” Well, buckle up because I’m going to give the best movie review this side of the Mississippi.  

Now I have already done a review of the short film Ciao Alberto, and it is on my blog from posts in November. So, after this if you want more Luca content review head there! 

Anyway, this movie came out the summer of 2021 and never really hit my radar of movies when it first came out.  But when I did finally watch it? I might have watched it multiple times in the span of a few days in both English and Italian. I could quote a lot of this movie in both languages. The storyline for this movie really got me hooked. Like what another Italian kid has a mom that acts like Luca’s? Insane concept to 18-year-old McKenna. Just the idea of running away from home was a theme that I think a lot of kids can resonate with, and all the underlying “I kinda came out to my parents and it didn’t go well time to run off with my best friend that is more than my best friend, but I’ll find that out later,” everyone goes through that.  

(SPOILER ZONE) This story felt so taken care of, the worldbuilding is subtle but is well thought out. The landscapes and design of Portorosso are so beautiful and really tie into the idea of a summer getaway. This story is a coming of age for Luca the main character, it’s the summer before he goes to human school, and the summer he meets many of the important people in his life. He meets two of his best friends, Alberto who he meets before going to Portorosso and who is also a sea monster, and Guilia who both Luca and Alberto meet in the town and persuades them to join the local triathlon. In this competition, Luca and Alberto strive to get a Vespa, a motor scooter, that is a symbol of freedom to both boys throughout the movie. When Alberto and Luca fight about what it means to mask as a human and Luca shows interest in going to school, the climax of the movie reaches its precipice. Alberto reveals that he’s a sea monster and Guilia acts out, scared, and Luca does as well. This breaks the otherwise good friendship Luca and Alberto had beforehand. And I do sob every time I see it. This is where we see more into Alberto as a character, he and Luca talk it out but it is left mostly open-ended. Back on the island in the middle of the race Alberto ‘sacrifices’ himself to make sure Luca has a chance in the triathlon, which Luca reveals himself to show he still cares about Alberto. Then the story has a wonderful message at the end that I sadly won’t be detailing as this post is the longest I’ve ever written… 

But please, if you haven’t watched Luca! It’s really great and Disney has it in almost every language.  

11/10 

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Because this is a written blog, you all reading this don’t get the grand opportunity to see my friends Kate and David dance to all the songs in this movie, it really is a shame. The fact that we were eating almost stale cookies from the bakery truly made the experience.  

I have never seen Mamma Mia before this, and Kate (a big ABBA fan) thought this was outrageous, so on a late Sunday night, we watched the movie with our friend David who also wished to rewatch the movie. And it was really great, the fact that the story was built by ABBA songs made the music so much more connected to the plot of the movie. The Chiquitita moment? Hilarious. The outfits? Showstopping. The beautiful island? Breathtaking.  

The plot might be a little clique, but I think that’s what makes the rest of the aspects of the movie shine. All the hints at which man is her dad, and mind you they all had small coincidences, along with her trying to find herself before her wedding were all pretty well done. The scene with Sky on the beach was so good and everything I would have wanted for the song. All the men with flippers marching down the dock and doing a little dance? That was so cute. The penguin waddle into the water made me chuckle, and I don’t chuckle. The comical choreographed dance scenes, with the large theatrical music moments, and picture-perfect landscapes. But most of all, I loved watching Kate and David belt all the lyrics and dancing with all the characters on screen. I might have missed some important moments watching them instead…  

(SPOILER ZONE FOR A CLOSE TO 15-YEAR-OLD MOVIE) Okay, so the fact that we never really found out who Sophie’s dad is kinda made me a little mad. Would it have messed with the plot if we found out? Yeah, but I’m just nosey. Also, the only one who deserves Donna is me, step back Sam you had a chance. And the only one who deserves Tanya is Kate, as she said this every single time she was on screen, every one, I counted. If you don’t like ABBA music after this masterpiece, you might have to watch it again. Gimmie Gimme Gimme has been stuck in my head all day and has been added to all of my daily playlists.

7/10 Good family movie 

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So, my friend PJ had some time to hang out this weekend and we decided to watch a Studio Ghibli movie neither of us have seen. Princess Mononoke was a movie that I’ve always wanted to watch but never had the chance, the chance was solved by PJ having HBO Max. All the while my roommate was blasting through their Chem 112 homework that was due in less than two hours. Amazing atmosphere. 

So, this movie is beautiful like I expected. Studio Ghibli just does so well at making worlds and explaining them through art instead of just telling you through exposition. And surprise! Another story that has themes of anti-war and does it perfectly. (SPOILER ZONE) So the coolest thing while watching this movie was learning that Iron town was stealing rice from other farm towns nearby because was the biggest revelation, the whole reason why the samurai attacked later in the movie. Also, Lady Eboshi taking in people that are discarded by society and giving them purpose, kinda? That’s pretty cool. Power to the women? Pretty swag. Lady Eboshi destroying the forest and killing the defender of the forest? Not cool at all. I have very mixed feelings about her (She’s pretty and that might be the only reason I’ve given her the benefit of doubt).  

This was a great story about how humans are destroying nature and cannot live in peace with nature with our evolution and adaptation to new environments with industrialization. It’s pretty on the nose about this theme, but it is still done very well. The total disregard the humans have for the animal spirits in the movie and how put off Ashitaka is really makes you think about how you treat things you don’t really understand or interact with. It made me think about the things I take for granted. My only complaint is that I really don’t know what side Ashitaka is on at the end of the movie and if he’ll help the humans only if they protect the forest? Not sure, maybe I’ll just watch the movie again. 

PJ is going to be mad at me, however, I must bring up the one thing that took me out of the atmosphere of the movie. And that is the baby bird scene. No this is not about a cute little bird but like the metaphor.  I know it was for the survival of Ashitaka but dang it went on for a while. With that tangent over, this was a good watch and is added to my list of beautiful movies. 

8/10 

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So, Kate finally did it. She persuaded me to watch Encanto, mostly by singing me the songs and forcing me to listen to Dos Ourguitas on multiple occasions. Now, Luca is one of my favorite Disney movies and when I heard about another movie coming out in 2021, I was excited. I just never got around to watching it. Do I have Luisa’s song playing on repeat writing this? Maybe. 

When coming back to school my friends were talking about the movie, I didn’t participate because I’d never seen it, but Kate was the only one that liked it enough that she’d seen it more than once. I’d seen so much good press on the movie that I was confused. It wasn’t like it was a huge movie in terms of box office sales, but one of the songs did surpass Let It Go which is not something I thought would happen in my lifetime.  I decided it was time to see this movie, and I was not let down. 

The depiction of family in this movie is… wow they got it, the themes made me reflect on the themes of family in Luca. I realized I never noticed it in Luca was because it was so similar to my own family. I also saw aspects of my own family in the one in this movie. When Mirabel finally talked to Luisa and Surface Pressure started playing, I was totally crying. The older sister vibes really popped off. Being strong in front of family is something I can relate to, and with all the other good reviews of this movie, it is something many can relate to. The plot of this movie was executed so well and had me emotional most of the second half. (SPOILER ZONE) When Abuela and Mirabel looked at the problem from each other’s point of view is when they can finally have a purposeful conversation, as before they only cared about how they felt and how it affected the family individually. Family is a group of people that love you unconditionally, but love in the face of adversity comes with understanding. Mirabel and Abuela understand that they want the same thing, to protect the family, and they work together to do just that. Learning that Mirabel’s gift is keeping the family together is such a good tie back to the themes of the Encanto in the first place.  

10/10 for Kate making me cry

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For Christmas, my high school friend gave me a copy of The Outsiders annotated with their favorite parts. They thought it was funny that I have never read the book because I went through a period of time where I only watched Grease and Grease 2, repeatedly. That is a time in my life that I can’t really explain, nor will I. Alas, I never read the book or watched the movie in my 19 years. So, this last break I decided to change that. I did finish the book in one sitting, we had some long drives to and from places this holiday season, and have to say I was really good. Like anyone who has read a book and heard there was a movie, I jumped at the thought that it could be a bad rendition of the novel.  

With my extensive experience with bad novel remakes, I’m looking at you Percy Jackson movies, I figured I would be a good judge of this 1983 film. Color me surprised when this movie was almost exactly like the book, a perfect remake if you discount some minor appearance changes of the characters. Also, this cast was STACKED? Some heavy hitters of the 1980s and 1990s male heartthrobs. Seeing Ralph Macchio so young made me want to rewatch the Karate Kid movies. And don’t worry guys, after watching this and Dirty Dancing I understand the Swayz-craze.  

Like I said before, this was a mostly spotless remake of the book and you could tell the director and team took care in retelling the story to a larger audience.  The casting for each character was spot on and gave them more concrete looks and personas to associate with the book. Ponyboy’s story is one that still resonates today even when we don’t have the Greasers and Socs as cliques in 2021. Ponyboy learning that people are people no matter their status and that a person should be judged on their individual actions is well set up in the book and movie. Even as (Spoiler for an almost 40-year-old movie) Johnny and Dallas don’t make it out in the end, one passing away as a hero and the other so distraught by the other leaving that he inevitably dies as a criminal, Ponyboy has to search through his grief if he should follow a life trying to get out of a place that groups people into categories or if he should listen to Dallas and toughen up before life knocks him down. The ending is mostly ambiguous, with Ponyboy writing his end-of-term paper as the book we are reading, or the story of events in the movie. I think the ending was a good circle back to the beginning as well as the other circular themes in the book and movie. 

9/10 wish Dallas had lighter hair…  

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