Toy Story 4 (2019)

The Low-Down: 24 years ago, Pixar’s Toy Story quite literally changed the face of animation as we know it. The film presented an entirely new way of telling a story, bringing characters to life via CGI – pixels over pencils, so to speak. At the same time, Toy Story set a new high standard for storytelling in film, proving conclusively that animated movies aren’t just for kids. In the intervening decades, the franchise has even made a strong case in favour of sequels – demonstrating that they’re not necessarily soulless cash-grabs. Toy Story 4 is very much a part of that grand tradition. This is smart, soulful, sublime film-making: somehow entertaining and profound all at once.

The Story: Sheriff Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) is trying his best to adjust to life with Bonnie (Madeleine McGraw) – the little girl who inherited Andy’s beloved childhood toys at the end of Toy Story 3. Even though he’s forgotten more often than not, Woody remains intensely focused on Bonnie and her happiness. This means going into full babysitter/bodyguard mode when Bonnie creates Forky (Tony Hale), a spork with twists of wire for hands and clumsy wooden popsicle sticks for feet. As Woody tries to keep the trash-oriented Forky safe, he’s swept into an accidental adventure – one in which he meets old friends and learns new truths about who he is and who he has yet to be.

The Great: Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Toy Story 4 is the fact that it feels like the natural, necessary final chapter of a story told in four parts. There’s no way that any of this could have been planned when Pixar first introduced us to Woody in 1995, but the progression in both narrative and character development feels utterly organic. Woody has spent the last three films grappling with his existential fear of being lost, forgotten or replaced, from his first meeting with the brash Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) to the day Andy outgrew him and went away to college. This film challenges Woody – and his audiences – to think hard about second chances, about changing how you look at yourself, about finding and embracing a new purpose in life. As such, Toy Story 4 might be the most philosophical movie you’ll see this year, in the best possible way.

The Not-So-Great: There actually isn’t all that much to complain about. The plot machinations can feel a little clunky at times, but Stephany Folsom and Andrew Stanton weave so much joy and humour into their screenplay that the film still zips along. As this is very much Woody’s movie, fan-favourite legacy characters like Buzz and Jessie (Joan Cusack) inevitably end up taking a back-seat. Even then, however, they each still get moments to shine. You might find yourself both thoroughly amused and mildly annoyed by the antics of Ducky (Keagan Michael-Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele), a symbiotic pair of new characters who were clearly inserted into proceedings for comic relief.

Forking Funny: Give it up for Forky, surely the best new animated character of the year. Voiced with a bewildered tenderness by Hale, Forky is a delight – a walking, talking identity crisis created out of one little girl’s love and imagination. Even better? With his magnetic attraction to all nearby trash-cans, Forky is a fandom meme just waiting to happen. A close runner-up is daredevil stuntman Duke Caboom, who reportedly owes his ridiculously charming posing and personality to current internet darling Keanu Reeves’ commitment to the role. Toy Story 4 even manages to make its main antagonist, Gabby Gabby (Christina Hendricks), both terrifying and endearing – although there are fewer shades of grey when it comes to her ventriloquist-doll minions, led by the determinedly creepy Benson.

Cowboy Blues: Ultimately, Toy Story 4 belongs to Woody, and rightfully so. He is this franchise’s Captain America, in more ways than one. This film pays loving tribute to Woody’s big heart and unwavering, self-effacing loyalty, even as it shakes up his life and world-view when he encounters old friend and possible paramour Bo Peep (Annie Potts) again. (Bo, by the way, is now super-cool and as far away from a fragile damsel-in-distress as anyone can be.) Woody’s decisions and revelations about himself will make you weep with the most complex and bittersweet of emotions. There is joy and sorrow here, hope and heartbreak, final farewells and new beginnings, often in the same moment. In other words, it’s the stuff of life itself, and it’s glorious.

Credits Where Credits Are Due: You’ll definitely want to stay throughout the credits of the film, which are peppered with closing scenes that are essential to tying up the overarching narrative. At the very end, you’ll even be rewarded with a happy ending for one of Toy Story 4’s most minor of characters.

Recommended? In every possible way. Toy Story 4 is a masterpiece of film-making, story-telling and animation. Delightful and devastating in equal measure, it might well be the silliest and most soul-stirring film you’ll see this year.

Because I Said So (2007)

Because I Said So is proof positive of the sheer unpredictability that goes into making a romantic comedy – there are only so many ways the same formula (largely: boy meets girl, boy and girl date, boy and girl break up over hopelessly manufactured situation, boy and girl totally hug, kiss and make up) can play out, so a great deal depends on the cast, the chemistry shared by the leads and the wit and ability of the screenwriter in question. At least in terms of its cast, BISS seems to have an ace in the hole: Diane Keaton, presumably playing a variation on the same loveably neurotic character that she’s brilliantly made her stock in trade over the years, aided by an impressive supporting cast including Lauren Graham (she of the sublime comic timing on TV’s Gilmore Girls), Piper Perabo and Mandy Moore. Unfortunately, this cast is not matched by a script that even approaches good enough, while any character development that might have made BISS a better movie is sorely lacking.

Keaton plays Daphne, a frenetically overbearing mother of three: married psychiatrist Maggie (Graham), the also married Mae (Perabo), and the painfully single Milly (Moore). Despite the movie’s lame attempts to claim that Milly’s habit of laughing rather like a hyena when she’s nervous greatly limits her appeal to men, Milly is clearly quite a catch… though her desperate mother fervently believes that this is not the case. Despairing of Milly finding a good guy on her own, Daphne decides to do the unforgiveable and put out a personal ad: except she will be the one to interview and give her approval to her prospective son-in-law. After meeting a gaggle of losers, Daphne is won over by Jason (Tom Everett Scott), a successful architect whose tendency to be a tad arrogant and pretentious is nevertheless no hurdle to Daphne’s desire to find Milly a man. In her eagerness, Daphne even dismisses out of hand the charms of musician and single dad Johnny (Gabriel Macht), whose affection for his hyperactive son Lionel (Ty Panitz) and lonely dad Joe (Stephen Collins) are a world away from Jason’s self-absorbed manipulation of Milly. Can Daphne ever let go of her daughter and allow Milly to find for herself the cliché of true love?

Okay, I admit to being a bit facetious in my description of the movie, having made clear in no uncertain terms its plot and eventual ending. But, honestly, the movie’s script is so painfully predictable – with every plot twist foreshadowed ten minutes ago – that you’d be a fool not to know how it all turns out the second Daphne first meets both Jason and Johnny on the same afternoon. It doesn’t help that the dialogue is patchy at best; there are some nice moments here and there, but BISS is, unfortunately, one of those movies whose two-minute trailers contain possibly the zingiest one-liners and best bits in the entire film. Character development is also risible to the point of being thoroughly frustrating. For one thing, Perabo’s character is almost wholly dispensable: she barely gets any good lines, we have next to no idea who she is as a person and how she fits into the Wilder family, and she could easily have been merged with Graham’s character to hardly any detriment on the movie. Screenwriters Karen Leigh Hopkins and Jessie Nelson also resort far too often to stereotype: once they have established Daphne as a screechy overbearing mother, and Milly as the long-sufferingly compliant daughter, they cling far too tightly to the characters and never give them a chance to breathe.

What good can be wrung out of such a set-up is provided by the cast. Keaton keeps the annoying, meddling Daphne from being too annoying, and manages to make otherwise excruciating moments – such as Daphne mutely asking Milly what it’s like to have an orgasm (in an anvil-like moment meant to represent the loneliness Daphne has had to endure to raise her daughters) – tolerable. Moore is passable, Perabo forgettable, but Graham gets in a couple of nice one-liners, including some of the funniest scenes in the movie as she interacts with hilariously needy patient Stuart (Tony Hale, who played Buster on Arrested Development) while trying to keep peace between her mother and sister. If BISS has provided us with nothing else, it has at the very least yielded Macht as a nice find – his laidback, effortless charm stands him in good stead for a long career in rom-coms, even though he’s been acting for a while.

Too bad the rest of the movie isn’t good enough to get the attention of critics or producers. BISS has occasional funny, sweet moments, and the cast does its best to make lemonade out of far too many lemons. But even thesps like Keaton can’t overcome the poorly-conceived script and two-dimensional characters to produce anything of lasting significance or impact.