Beavis & Butthead do the Universe: Mike Judge convinced Paramount+ to greenlight another season for the boys, or maybe it was the other way around. Whichever, this came first. Much like the original “Do America,” Beavis and Butthead were silly for 80 minutes in some new settings. I found comfort in both the nostalgia and ridiculousness. ****
The Sea Beast: If this animated adventure on the high seas got released in a theater back when movies were regularly being released in theatres, I bet it would’ve been a big hit. Not that a ton of people didn’t see it on Netflix, but though the stakes and story were kind of beautiful it really felt like this just came and went. ****
I’m Charlie Walker: Mike Colter (Luke Cage!) sticks it to a bunch of oil executives while fighting institutional racism. That sounds cooler than the movie ended up. Everything was fine but nobody involved seemed to agree on why it existed. **1/4
After Yang: Kogonada helmed 2017’s fantastic (and fantastic to look at) Columbus, which starred John Cho as an architect stranded in a small Midwestern town. The premise of his follow-up seemed different: the robot child in a family of three humans’ begins to malfunction and they try to handle it. But like Columbus, the story was understated, the filmmaking was confident, and every scene looked beautiful — occasionally to the point of emotions. ****
Dinner in America: A couple of punk rock kids on the run causing ruckus together was like every other movie in the early 2000’s, but times are different. I’m different. Whatever triumph for the little guy this was in search of, it just felt cynical and otherwise not very entertaining. **
