Rating: 16/20
Plot: A little girl and her young brother, the titular characters with a star map, go on an urban adventure to find a time machine belonging to Baby Jesus. Along the way, they face a giant and a cyclops!
I loved this movie. Loved, loved, loved. It's just short of an hour which is precisely how long it should be, and I was smiling for the duration. The ending, which I won't give away because I want you to click on the link below when you find yourself in a situation where you want to be happier than you are and have an hour to spare, gave me that type of smile where it feels like part of your face is about to blow apart and make a complete mess. I remember when I was a child and people I knew got themselves video cameras. They'd film their children opening Christmas presents or playing sports or just doing the most mundane stupid things. The kids would ham it up, so obviously aware of the camera, and the parents would be left with a video that only they could barely appreciate. And even the parents would know that the video was lame. The kids? They'd just be embarrassed by the whole thing. Essentially, Cory McAbee (director of the brilliant The American Astronaut and the fun serialized Stingray Sam, funky sci-fi musical Westerns) is just filming his kids. And I know what you're thinking. A director releasing a movie with his kids kind of sounds annoying. But you know what? When the kids are this cute, you not only excuse it, you downright enjoy it. I was impressed with the children, Willa Vy McAbee and John Huck McAbee, kids who don't seem aware of the camera at all. In fact, you're almost fooled that you're just tagging along on a little adventure with these two and that there is no adult presence at all, something that's kind of funny since that would mean there's a 7-year-old and a 2-year-old wandering around the city all by themselves. Willa Vy is a good little actress for someone so young, and the obvious love she has for her little brother is refreshing. John Huck gives what is very likely the greatest acting performance by a 2-year-old in the history of cinema. Sure, the kid needs subtitles, but that's also part of the charm to this whole thing. You can't understand Sylvester Stallone all the time either, right? I'm a fan of 2-year-olds in general, probably my favorite age, and although I suspect there was some coaching/scripting from Dad, the strategy seemed to be letting the camera roll and just capturing whatever the kid wanted to say. And that's great because 2-year-olds, this one in particular, say things that make me smile. The music also made me smile. Once again, it's The Billy Nayer Show providing the soundtrack, and if you've seen the other McAbee movies--and you definitely should--then you know what to expect. "Walkin' with Their Eyes Closed," "I'm a Rocket," a song that plays when the kids visit a pet shop, and a kickass song accompanying a ride on a mouse are not ever going to be hits in our world, but they're a lot of fun. It's the perfect music to accompany the deeds of interplanetary traders and space pirates, and it's the perfect music to back an adventure in the city by two little kids. And yes, even though these characters arguably don't do much at all, it's still an adventure. In the minds of children, peeling a lemon for roughly ten percent of a movie's length, watching a door opening and closing, engaging in a discussion about how dirty a chair is, collecting flies, riding on a mouse, arguing about what a room is and whether baby pigeons have them, encountering a guy with a beard (Graham P. Stanford, a carpenter who has acted in only this), and encountering another guy who looks like he's perpetually winking (Gregory Russell Cook) are open-ended pieces of an adventurous afternoon. If we learn nothing from the McAbee children in this, we should learn that there are a lot of stars in the world if you're young enough and know where to look for them. It's a lesson a lot of people need to learn.
I'm not completely sure whom Cory McAbee makes movies like this for, but I can tell you one thing: The world would be a better place if this was mainstream. Here's a link so that you can watch this often-funny, consistently-clever gem:
No comments:
Post a Comment