Dominique Fishback – Spinning Platters

Film Review: “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts”

Barely enough heart and humor to scratch through the mess

If only the Transformers film series began in 2018 with Bumblebee, a compelling audience-pleasing character introduction akin to 2008’s Iron Man, and then expanded the Transformers universe from there. Instead, we have five noisy, forgettable, often offensive Transformers films directed by Michael Bay between 2007-2017 in the back of our minds. Bumblebee successfully stripped the franchise back down to its essential parts and concentrated on a Spielbergian 1980s character-driven story with impressive robot action set pieces sprinkled throughout. It functioned as an effective standalone film and baseline for how to tell these stories in a cinematic way. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts functions as a sequel and a new series starting point, continuing a few important elements from its predecessor, like emotionally relatable characters and unique robot personalities, but it runs well off the rails by introducing far too many plot devices and ending with a long, no stakes CGI mess.

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Film Feature: Chris Piper’s Top 10 Films of 2021

Films make a big comeback in 2021

2021 in American cinema was remarkable in how it seemed so… normal. Whatever the numbers say, my feeling was that the year started a little slowly, then found its footing around March, then kicked into something like a normal gear over the summer. As fall approached, and it seemed to me more theaters reopened, a slate of films pretty much like those in 2019 awaited. Winter seemed to bring somewhat larger than normal crop of smaller-budget films, and here we are, at the end of the year with a number of solid films released, awards season in full swing, and waiting for Oscar noms in just over a month.

So here are my top 10 films of 2021. See these 10 films in any order you want, preferably in the theater, but on your couch if you must. Here’s hoping for more of more of the same in 2022. Continue reading “Film Feature: Chris Piper’s Top 10 Films of 2021”

Film Feature: Best of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival

True story: my friend met her husband on a Sundance shuttle bus. They struck up a conversation, kept in touch after the Festival ended, and, 15 years and three kids later, the rest is history. Maybe lightning struck again for some lucky couple this year, but I’m guessing probably not. As much as Sundance staff strived to make the 2021 virtual Fest feel like those of past years, Zoom “waiting rooms” and video Q and A’s just couldn’t replicate the feeling of being bundled up at 7:30am in a waitlist line, passing the time and distracting yourself from the cold by idly asking your neighbor, “What have you seen so far that you’ve liked?” The cheery, disembodied “Hi from Boston!” chats that flashed on screen in this year’s pre-screening digital lobbies just couldn’t offer the same sort of in-person connection that can only be found by bonding over waitlist numbers 99 and 100 and mushy theater concession tuna wraps. That said, however, the quality of the films shown at this year’s Festival, which concluded last week, still measured up to Sundance’s best. Below we take a look at four documentaries and four features that are worth seeing.

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