‘Silence’ and ‘The Young Pope’ Review – Now Conspiring

silence

This week on the podcast, Jon and Will got together to talk about a lot of religious entertainment material, including the new HBO series, The Young Pope, last year’s Last Days in the Desert, and then our featured review, Silence, the latest film from Martin Scorsese. Also, we kicked things off with a brief look at some 2017 movies we’re excited about that aren’t superhero flicks.

Question of the Week: Which 2017 movie are you looking forward to the most?

Go on…‘Silence’ and ‘The Young Pope’ Review – Now Conspiring

We Now Know Exactly What Pixar’s ‘Coco’ Is About And Who’s In It

Pixar’s next big movie, Coco, has so far been mostly shrouded in mystery…until now. The post below is a transcription of the video above.

Coco is the next original Pixar film that isn’t a sequel, but it’s also the last original Pixar film for a few years in a row as the studio releases Incredibles 2 and Toy Story 4.

So obviously, there’s a lot riding on Coco being a superb movie. Because it will have to satisfy our appetites for quite a while, in the same way Inside Out and Good Dinosaur prepared us for Finding Dory and Cars 3.

But until now, we’ve known very little about Coco, a movie about a young Mexican boy who discovers a family secret about his past. The movie was announced in 2012 and was revealed to be centered around the Mexican holiday, Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead. And it’s directed by Lee Unkrich, the director of Toy Story 3, co-directed by Adrian Molina, and produced by longtime Pixar veteran Darla K. Anderson. Yes, that Darla.

I should stress that the information I’m about to share is very plot-heavy, so if you don’t want to know too much about Coco, then you may want to click away.

That said, here’s a bunch of new stuff we just found out about Coco, starting with the basic plot. You can also watch the video at the top of the page, or read the transcription below.

coco

Coco stars Miguel, voiced by 12-year-old newcomer Anthony Gonzalez, a young boy with secret musical ambitions in a Mexican village full of vibrant and festive music-lovers. Unfortunately, his family of shoemakers despises and even forbids music in their household and apparently for good reason: they believe they’ve been cursed by music due to an old family story about Miguel’s great-great-grandfather abandoning his wife, Imelda, in order to become a musical performer. As a result, the family outright bans music.

Secretly, Miguel wants to become like his favorite singer, the now deceased Ernesto de la Cruz, voiced by Benjamin Brett. And he accidentally enters the Land of the Dead believing he has some link to the singer’s ghost.

(Like any good Pixar Theorist, you might be thinking the movie is setting this up to be a reveal that De la Cruz is Miguel’s late great-great-grandfather, but this almost seems too obvious, right?)

Anyway, Miguel explores this beautiful underworld and stumbles across the souls of his family, the Riveras, which includes his great-great-grandmother Imelda. He’s joined by a mischievous skeletal spirit named Hector, who is voiced by Gael García Bernal, and they team up to find De la Cruz somewhere in the Land of the Dead. And of course, there’s a time limit, so Miguel has to do all of this and return to the Land of the Living before he supposedly gets trapped their forever.

coco

Like I said, that’s a lot of information, though the movie is less than a year away and we can expect to learn even more in the coming months. And thanks to Entertainment Weekly, we also have some specific insights from the creators of the movie that you can check out here. For example, Unkrich points out that this is an all-Latino cast, which is pretty new for Disney and Pixar, and he also provides some extra info on the voice cast that you might find interesting.

One last thing: Pixar is telling us that Coco has a ton of music in it, but it’s definitely not a musical, at least in the classical sense. Pixar has never been shy about featuring music beats in their movies (think the Toy Story movies, Monsters Inc.Wall-E, etc.) So it’s interesting to hear that Coco will be pushing that line a bit further since it centers around famous singers. I think we can at least expect a fun soundtrack, if nothing else.

Coco will hit theaters on November 22, 2017, and as always, I’ll be hitting the books on how this movie could potentially speak to the greater Pixar shared universe, if at all, as we learn more about it. For now, let’s all wait patiently for that first teaser.


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Ep111: What We’re Watching In December

december

We’ve watched a lot of movies this year, but as we wind down in December, what are the movies we plan to check out in theaters and at home? Featuring special guest and the film critic’s film critic, Will Ashton.

This week, we talked a lot about early reactions to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and did our standard Show & Tell segment toward the end of the show for a change.

You can also download this podcast episode on iTunes and Stitcher.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What was your favorite superhero movie of 2016, if any? Also, what movie from 2016 do you want to see the most that you missed in theaters?

Go on…Ep111: What We’re Watching In December

Ep109: The Arrival of Moana’s Beasts and Where to Find Them

moana

And we’re back. The Now Conspiring hiatus is over, and we have a lot to talk about, like how much we like (and dislike) some recent movies and TV shows. ArrivalMoana, and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them are all highlights, but as always, Sam talks about something I’ve already forgotten about.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Did you watch Doctor Strange and if so, did you like it?

Let us know your thoughts (and your favorite podcast moments) in the comments, which we may read on next week’s show! Also, don’t forget to follow us on Facebook so you can send us direct messages and get podcast updates crazy fast. And be sure to subscribe on iTunes and/or Stitcher, where you can also rate/review the podcast if you like it!

SHOW NOTES

00:00:00 – Introduction and announcement.

00:04:15 – Sam talks about Moonlight.

00:07:05 – We talk about Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

00:32:18 – We talk about Arrival.

00:47:25 – We talk about Moana.

This week’s cast:

Jon NegroniKayla Savage, Maria Garcia, and Sam Noland.

Pixar’s First ‘Cars 3’ Trailer Promises A Darker, More Interesting Tone For The Series

I’m a bit at a loss with Cars 3 so far, except to point out two key things Pixar is trying to say with this initial advert:

  1. This isn’t Cars.
  2. This isn’t Cars 2.

Specifically, this trailer seems to promise a darker, more visceral movie, perhaps because the younger views of the previous films have grown up with these toys and might be ready for something more mature (and cars crashing on the race track is a grisly, sadly familiar sight). And that’s not even mentioning how much sharper and more visually arresting the visuals are here.

The trailer doesn’t mention this, but the movie will partly focus on Lightning McQueen’s memory of Doc Hudson, who passed between Cars and Cars 2. We’ll also see most of the characters from Radiator Springs again, which probably includes Tow Mater (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy), though that isn’t confirmed. It’s too early to tell at this point what the extent of this “crash” will be for McQueen, and it’s smart to avoid showing his face at all to sell the new tone.

cars 3

I understand that there’s a lot of disdain for the Cars franchise among even the most ardent Pixar lovers. It’s hard to deny that Cars 2 was anything short of a cash grab, made to bank on the surprising merchandising success of the first film, this time starring the comedic sidekick. But I happen to be one of the fans who grew up loving the first Cars, considering it one of my favorites growing up because it came out around the time I was learning to drive. If Cars 3 is anywhere close to being as affecting as that movie, then I’ll personally be satisfied.

 

Review: ‘Moana’ Is Disney’s Best Movie In Decades

Moana is a triumphant return to form for Disney that improves upon just about everything the studio has set up through both its recent surge of Pixar-esque entertainment, as well as the musical favorites of recent years. It’s a highlight that owes much of its existence to the success of TangledWreck-It Ralph, and Frozen, though perhaps even more directly to the 90s classics younger critics like myself grew up with. Make no mistake, though, Moana is its own quirky, beautiful masterwork.

You can watch the full review above or read a transcription published here.

Grade: A+

Extra Credits:

  • The movie stars Auli’i Cravalho as Moana and Dwayne Johnson as Maui. It was directed and co-written by Ron Clements, co-directed by Don Hall, John Musker, and Chris Williams, and the screenplay is by Jared Bush.
  • Ron Clements and John Musker sound familiar? They made The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, and Hercules, among some other hand-drawn Disney films. This is their first feature-length computer-animated movie.
  • Original songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Opetaia Foa’i, and Mark Mancina.
  • If Moana wins an Oscar for its music, then Miranda will be the third person ever to achieve a PEGOT (Pulitzer, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony).
  •  Moana is the first Disney princess not based on an existing fairy tale or legend, unless you count Merida from Brave as a Disney princess.
  • I didn’t cover this in the review, but Cravalho (who voices Moana) is an incredible talent for such a young age. At 14, she’s the youngest Disney Princess voice ever.
  • “Moana” means “ocean or sea” in Polynesian culture, and it’s a common word for “blue.”
  • Alan Tudyk voices the animal sidekick in this film, which is notable because this is the fifth consecutive animated Disney movie he’s worked in, starting with Wreck-It Ralph.
  • Easter eggs: The only one I managed to catch is Maui transforming into Sven, from Frozen. Also, Moana is referenced in Zootopia as a DVD called “Meona.”

    Thanks for reading this. Seriously. You can subscribe to my posts by clicking “Follow” in the right sidebar. 

    Or just say hello on Twitter: @JonNegroni


 

 

How ‘Doctor Strange’ Compares To The Rest Of The MCU

Doctor Strange arrives in theaters this week, but how does it measure up to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?

You can also read a transcription of this video here.

Hope you guys enjoyed my first video for Jon In Theory, a new channel I’ve been working on (hence my radio silence these past two weeks) in order to give you a wider depth of content (and because many of you have been clamoring for me to do videos since 2012). If you still prefer to read on this site, I’ll be providing transcriptions along with each video, as well.

Jon In Theory is a weekly video blog dedicated to thinking deeply when it comes to entertainment culture. I plan on addressing a lot of topics that range from fan theories to persuasive arguments about film and television. These include ideas I’ve written about in the past, like the Pixar Theory and Inception theories. But I also want to try new things as well, like video essays.

doctor strange

So let me know your thoughts on this first episode, which is a quick quasi-review of Doctor Strange as it relates to the larger MCU. And I’m still doing my live Pixar show on Wednesdays (why am I so busy?), which you can check out on Super News.

Enjoy!


Thanks for reading this. Seriously. You can subscribe to my posts by clicking “Follow” in the right sidebar. 

Or just say hello on Twitter: @JonNegroni