My Kid Could Paint That

 And this week's Friday night movie has been... My Kid Could Paint That!

Original image located here. Accessed 3rd April 2026

Last year I was watching a number of documentaries that started going in one direction but ended up somewhere else entirely. But for some reason, I abandoned this approach. So why not resurrect it? After all, this breed of documentary is fascinating to me. 

And this one is a doozy: This is a documentary from 2007 that chronicles a little girl named Marla Olmstead. At four years of age, she shows an ability with painting and is able to produce works that resemble that of abstract expressionism. Before too long, Marla has her own exhibitions, earning praise for her childlike approach and is making serious money.
But then, halfway through the documentary, something happens: 60 Minutes do a feature on Marla, asserting that she is not the genuine article: She is not a child prodigy, she is producing art comparable to that of a normal preschool child and she may have had assistance from her father. 
What follows is the assertions that the works are genuine - even to the point of filming Marla making a piece for five hours - even when the works produced after the expose look different when compared to those that came before.

What is fascinating about this documentary is that the conclusions it draws are non-existent. HOWEVER! The questions it raises are something else: Was it a hoax? Were 60 Minutes being needlessly aggressive? Is abstract expressionism a legit form of art? What makes a child prodigy? Is Marla allowed to be a child? Are we the audience meant to draw our own conclusions?
Given that documentaries often serve as propaganda it is remarkable just how open-ended this one ends up - why, even the director admins to camera that he himself is unable to reach a definitive conclusion. 
And that's what makes this documentary so compelling. 

Ratatouille

  And this week's Friday night movie has been... Ratatouille!

Original image located here. Accessed 15th December 2023

And here we have another movie that originally escaped my notice the first around and, through some miracle, managed to do so for the next sixteen years, And once again, it is better late than never.

Ultimately, this is a Pixar movie so one expects it to be of very high quality. And Ratatouille delivers with it's animation, it's ingenious attempts at physical comedy, it's humour, it's depiction of Paris and the careful attention to detail with it's characters, Yes such strengths may be par for the course with Pixar but when they do what they do so well who am I to complain?
But perhaps the greatest takeaway I got from Ratatouille is the message of trying something and keeping at it no matter the risk or the number of failures one might experience on the way. Such a message may be nothing new in a kids movie but here it is delivered in a way that is nothing less than exceptional. Indeed, the concluding review from the character of Anton Ego is truly the apex of the movie - and is of particular resonance as I continue to bash these words out.

And one day I might actually learn how to correctly pronounce 'Ratatouille' (whilst writing this review I was referring to it as The Rat Movie).

Reign Over Me

   And this week's Friday night movie has been... Reign Over Me!

Original image located here. Accessed 17th November 2023

And here we have another stab at Adam Sandler's oeuvre. As mentioned previously, he may have a reputation for playing childish idiots but it's a reputation that's made him into a punchline. As a result, it can be one that would be difficult to shake off. 
Therefore, to see him playing a serious role would surely be the most ill-advised career move ever. I mean, the concept sounds awful on paper: Adam Sandler playing a widower who's struggling to overcome his losses and is stuck in some form of PTSD? That sounds utterly ludicrous.

So it is therefore a monumental surprise that it actually works. Sure Charlie is the same jerkass character Sandler has played before but here his behaviour is given some vital context. Sandler makes Charlie, the character he's portraying, sympathetic and, most crucially of all, he finally gets to show what he can truly do with his acting prowess - notably the scene when Charlie reveals the depth of his loss. 
Okay sure the script seems kind of all over the place, but when it works, it knocks it out of the park.

Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone!

Original image located here. Accessed 7th January 2022

It's a new year and i want to kick it off with a bang. So I'm going to aim for something ambitious: On each Friday of this month, i will be watching one of the new Evangelion movies (and confuse all the non-anime fans in my audience).
I have been holding out on these as i wanted to wait until all of them were readily available. Well the time has come to finally watch a saga that has been fourteen years in the making.
But that's not all: As I will be going through each of these movies, I will be sharing my own experiences with these franchise. I will be sharing my own perceptions on this and how they have evolved over the years. After all, creator Hideaki Anno went through his own odyssey in creating Evangelion, the franchise itself has been through a separate odyssey, but I have an odyssey of my own to bring to the table: That of the viewer. I want to talk about my thoughts on this franchise and how they have evolved over the years, contrasting Evangelion with my own journey through this thing called life.

So here we go:

I - Genesis
It was late 1998 - a time when SBS began flogging an anime TV series called Neon Genesis Evangelion. As this was an age well before online streaming, and one had to actively hunt down anything resembling anime, my interest was well and truly piqued (that and the trailer SBS used was monumental). I watched every episode, every weekend, expecting to see giant robots knocking the stuffing out of giant aliens. Well that was exactly what I got but at the same time there was something else: As I watched I noticed that a lot of the characters were going through a lot on a psychological level. I was puzzled by this at first - and at times annoyed as I wanted to get to the action - but what did it matter? I had found something new and was eager for it. I do recall someone people at the time made fun of me for liking it but did it matter? After all, i was getting a lot out of it - even if it's lead character, Shinji Ikari was a whinger to the point of exasperating.

As for this new movie, it wears it's intention as a reboot on it's sleeve: It's a reconstruction of the first six episodes of the TV series. The familiar beats and themes are there - with many shots looking exactly the same - and there are some new footage thrown in. Some mysteries are revealed early on, Shinji is less whiny (mercifully) and, although things are moving at quicker pace, it is all there, just as i recalled it.
Obviously a sense of familiarity is being applied here - a perfect scenario to have the rug from pulled out from under them.
And that really is the only goal of this movie: to welcome back it's viewers. But in the end, it is still a big ask: I mean, I can't expect this movie to deliver the same thrill as it did back in early 1999. I mean i am the same person i was back then? I hope not

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

And this week's Friday night movie has been... Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix!

Original image located here. Accessed 6th November 2020

Seems Chronicles of Narnia isn't the only fantasy serial I have neglected...
Funny thing with the Harry Potter movies: I started them but I never got around to completing the series entirely. So for this November, i will rectify this situation. Granted I've picked a bad time to do this but hey, I'm not one to leave a job unfinished.
Now previously I couldn't remember if I have seen Order of the Phoenix before but I watched it anyway: Largely to refresh my memory.

However it is difficult to assess this movie on it's own as a) it's part of a serial and b) it's the first of four movies headed by the same director, David Yates. Still, this was a lot of fun. And it has the same wonder, adventure, scares and humor that won me over when i saw the first movie back in 2002 (!).
Also it is handy to be reminded why people hate Dolores Umbridge so much.

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

And this week's Friday night movie has been.....Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story!

Original image located here. Accessed 22nd March 2019

I was interested in seeing this movie because it was sold to me as something of a contrast to Bohemian Rhapsody. Whereas a common complaint of Bohemian Rhapsody was that it adhered to the tried-and-tested tropes of the music bio-pic (often at the expense of the facts), Walk Hard however mocked said tropes, making them both stupid and hilarious at the same time. The ultimate irony is however that Walk Hard was a bomb whilst Bohemian Rhapsody raked in the cash.

Personally? I thought this was hilarious. The tropes are indeed all recognizable and are mercilessly mocked. Some of the cameos are a scream (the scene where Dewey meets the Beatles is one such moment), the personalities are similarly made fun of, the songs are great, and the contributions from real-life personalities are a hoot. Sure some of the jokes are incredibly stupid but it's my kind of silliness. But when the jokes do hit, they hit out of the park (witness the Bob Dylan parody and Dewey's multiple encounters with drugs through his drummer).
Plus it has Jack White (!) in scene-stealing form as Elvis (!!). Can't go wrong with that.

Enchanted

And this week's Friday night movie has been.....Enchanted!

Original image located here. Accessed 2nd December 2016

You gotta hand it to Disney: Poking fun at themselves and the tropes they pioneered. I will gladly support any big company that has the willingness to laugh at themselves and this film delivers in spades. Oh and Amy Adams. She was a riot to watch and she pretty much steals the show. So yeah: Great film!
Could've done without that dragon at the end though....