'Creature Commandos' is an Animated Hit

        On December 5, 2024, Max released 'Creature Commandos', which has earned rave reviews from critics and a score of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the series, "A black ops team is formulated out of prisoners, laying the foundatoin for the Suicide Squad." The ensemble cast includes Viola Davis, Zoe Chao, Sean Gunn, Indira Varma, Frank Grillo, David Harbour, Maria Bakalova, and Alan Tudyk. Read the full review round-up below. 

Photograph by Courtesy of Max

        Tyler Robertson of IGN Movies says, "James Gunn’s classic recipe of lovable weirdos, great music, and lots of jokes and violence is on full display, but in a new, fresh way that’s presented well in animation." Adding, "The performances are an across-the-board highlight here, even those from actors more accustomed to live-action projects. Grillo and Varma are the deep-in-character standouts, but Zoë Chao and Viola Davis do great work as Nina Mazursky and Amanda Waller, respectively, and Alan Tudyk and Sean Gunn are well suited for their various roles. David Harbour doesn’t always hit the sweet spot as the curt and aloof yet irrationally immature Eric Frankenstein, but that might be more about the writing for the lovestruck monster. But when it works, it works, and it’ll be interesting to see how these characters are translated to live-action – according to Gunn, the actors will reprise their roles in other corners of the DCU."

       Jarrod Jones of AV Club notes, "Even with all these messy feelings and messier body parts flying around, Gunn’s monster mash achieves the level of gravitas it so often seeks. Even when he’s running in circles, the guy still knows how to deliver cheap thrills." Continuing, "Gunn, ever adept at pulling compelling beats from the most absurd characters, made the Guardians of the Galaxy a household name simply by giving space aliens motivations we understood, which is also why Creature Commandos works as well as it does. What motivates a supervillain is only a cliché if the writer lets it be, and Gunn is too canny a storyteller, too fascinated by the make and psychology of these esoteric freaks and geeks to let their stories be generic. So, Gunn takes detours from the series’ pandemonium to explore the Commandos’ origins, painting a vivid picture of who these oddballs are and why they’re so willing to march to Waller’s drum. (For most, it’s redemption by hellfire.) Even Tudyk’s cackling radioactive man gets a tragic backstory that explains why he’s so picky about when, where, and how he uses those melting powers of his. He may have a permanent rictus grin, but he ain’t smiling."

       Reuben Baron of Looper.com writes, "Gunn knows how to keep this material entertainingly twisted while still treating his silly characters with emotional sincerity. The only major downside is that the show is doing almost nothing new." Concluding, "Fans looking for clues as to the future of the DCU will find some potential Easter eggs relating to bigger-name superheroes, but will leave with many more questions about what the rest of the cinematic universe will look and feel like. "Creature Commandos" feels like a solid preview of the tone of the TV-MA "Peacemaker" Season 2-slash-"Waller" segment of the DCU, largely because it's completely in line with "The Suicide Squad" and "Peacemaker" Season 1 segment of the DCEU. But there's no way Gunn's "Superman" movie will be a tonal match for "Creature Commandos" — not when some uncomfortable scenes here border on the edge of Gunn's "Super."

'Nightbitch' Reviews: Quirky Film Emerges as an Oscar Contender

         At The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, 'Nightbitch' quickly garnered predominantly positive reviews, currently holding at 72% on Rotten Tomatoes. In the film, which is distributed by Searchlight Pictures with a release date on December 6, 2024, "A woman (Amy Adams) pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mom seeking a new chapter in her life and encounters just that, when her maternal routine takes a surreal turn." The ensemble cast includes Scoot McNairy, Zoe Chao, and Ella Thomas. But what did the critics say? 

Photo by Josh Chiodo on Unsplash

        David Rooney of Hollywood Reporter says, "It’s disappointing that a book greeted as a feminist fairy tale, which dared to say out loud some dark truths about the more often unspoken conflicts of motherhood, has been defanged." Adding, "While McNairy makes Husband annoyingly inattentive, the actor is also careful not to let him become a complete douche. There’s humor in his admission that solo Baby duty — which allows Mother to throw herself back into her art — is hard.  But it feels like a betrayal of the story’s whole reason for being that his redemption takes up so much space. Nightbitch is a film that should make us squirm, but its path to marital harmony seems designed to soothe, not challenge. “Motherhood is fucking brutal,” says the protagonist. But then suddenly, it’s not, a tidy resolution driven home in a WTF? scene right before the end credits roll."

        Johnny Oleksinski of New York Post writes, "Mother, an artist who used to be shown at major galleries and museums, must pretend to everyone who asks that she couldn’t be happier with her sedate life. Her faux contentment just conceals a primal urge to charge through the woods and, you know, kill squirrels. Because Adams is so good at playing people who are just about to snap (“Julie & Julia,” “Doubt,” “Hillbilly Elegy”), the viewer goes along with her for the ride, er, walk. “Nightbitch” is funny and lovably weird. A bigger issue than its oddball plot is that the film, which Heller also wrote for the screen, is one-note. Once we know where the story is headed, it ventures there exactly as we anticipate it to — and nowhere else. Much like a dog fetching a stick.       

        Meagan Navarro of Bloody Disgusting notes, "Adams creates a grounding emotional throughline to tie it together just enough for its messaging to succeed, eliciting some genuine laughs along the way, but Nightbitch seems too scared of its own feral setup and defangs its righteous wrath too early."

       Peter Gray of The AU Review praises the film, stating, "Despite the fact that the recently released trailer made Nightbitch look more like a quirky comedy – think a female-drive, R-rated take on Tim Allen’s The Shaggy Dog – I can attest that Marielle Heller‘s take on Rachel Yoder‘s seemingly unadaptable 2021 novel of the same name is far from the laughable ridiculousness some may expect.  It’s quirky, yes, and a film about a woman turning into a dog has a layer of ridiculousness built in, but this is truly a meditation on motherhood, isolation and female rage, driven at the helm by a fearless Amy Adams. And despite its horrific elements, Nightbitch is also far from the disturbing genre experience that some other critics out of TIFF (where this film had its world premiere) were waxing lyrical about.  After something like The Substance, almost anything will pale in comparison, and though there may be a few light squeamish moments – Adams’ unnamed character (she’s simply credited as “Mother”) sprouts a tail out of an enlarged cyst on her body at one point, whilst another shot of menstrual blood evoked an audible reaction – it’s nothing a genre fan can’t handle.  The true horrors of Nightbitch lay within the pressure of parenthood, and what that can do to someone’s psyche as a result of not feeling supported."