Godzilla Minus One

 

Tachibana: Live.

I was not expecting such a devastating, gut-wrenching emotional rollercoaster. It was all I could do to keep myself from sobbing, especially at the end.

I can't do it justice, so I'm going to blatantly plagiarize. 

The Powerful Human Drama of Gozilla Minus One:

As soon as the credits rolled for Godzilla Minus One, I knew that I had seen a truly special film. It is, quite simply, a tour de force of moviemaking, a cinematic triumph... Godzilla Minus One is an extraordinarily human story. It is a story about men and the monsters we make. It is about grief, guilt, trauma, and the stark horror of total war. But it is also a story that speaks to hope in the midst of heart-rending tragedy, to courage in the face of near-certain defeat, to solidarity in spite of insurmountable odds, to forgiveness regardless of wounds that may never fully heal, and to life triumphant in defiance of death.

Gozilla Minus One is a Monstrous Triumph:

As the credits started rolling on Toho Studios’ latest kaiju blockbuster, I was left startled by the emotions burning in my chest. I was left nerve-ridden by the film’s incredibly tense bouts of destruction, the hairs on my arm standing in accompaniment to Naoki Sato’s roaring orchestral soundtrack. My eyes ached from tears shed, unexpectedly so, for the film’s painting of the human condition in both its darkest and most hopeful hours. Lastly, my head was clouded from confusion. Somehow, Godzilla: Minus One managed to not just be a spectacular monster-movie but an incredibly poignant and personal distillation of the effects that nationalist warfare had on the people of Japan after World War II... 

This film is at its core a rumination on the social effects Japan’s incredibly fascist disdain for life had on veterans coming out of World War II. Godzilla represents the might of America’s brutality, which was a response to Japan’s own; the monster being awakened in this film because of the physical effects of nuclear weaponry. Everything Shikishima goes through is driven by how he slowly recovers the humanity that warfare stripped him of.

Inside Out

Hello, Riley! Look at you, aren't you a little bundle of joy!

Come back here you little monkey! Oh you're silly!

It's official: I'm a dad. And I found so many themes in this movie to be all too relatable, which may explain why this movie was a 90-minute cry-fest for me. It is a fascinating artistic vision of an incredibly deep and complex topic: What makes us who we are?
From the moment Riley first opened her eyes, she began to experience the world and make memories. And the very first memory she made was a happy one. We see her formative years and how the experiences she had influenced the young woman that she became. And it was impossible for me not to think about my own kids and the memories that they're making. Every experience, good or bad, happy or angry, scared or sad, leaves an impression.
From Wikipedia: Josh Cooley and Meg LeFauve were credited as co-writers of the screenplay following their contributions during the rewrite. Like Docter, Cooley and LeFauve included experiences with raising their own children into the screenplay. Cooley said "... we treated the emotions like parents for Riley and because all of us in the writing room are parents ourselves, we just reflected on our own experiences as parents to create the characters."
And when Goof-Ball Island came crashing down into the abyss, lost forever, I broke down sobbing. She was growing up, no longer Daddy's silly little monkey. And she never would be again.
The artistic imagination of this movie is something I never could have come up with: the working relationship between Riley's different emotions is not what I would have expected, but it made perfect sense in the movie. And as we peer into the inner-workings of Riley's parents' minds, we see how differently their emotions worked together.
This movie tackles some very deep issues, and does so brilliantly. It's without doubt one of the best movies I have ever seen.

Coco

Remember me
Though I have to say goodbye
Remember me
Don't let it make you cry
For even if I'm far away, I hold you in my heart
I sing a secret song to you each night we are apart

Remember me
Though I have to travel far
Remember me
Each time you hear a sad guitar
Know that I'm with you the only way that I can be
Until you're in my arms again
Remember me

Miguel: Nothing is more important than family. I'm ready to accept your blessing. And your conditions. But first, I need to find de la Cruz. To get Héctor's photo! So, he can see Coco again. Héctor should be on our ofrenda. He's part of our family.

Wow. Pixar really outdid themselves this time. This movie deserves every bit of praise that it has received. I can't really remember the last time a saw a movie with such a strong family message. It was truly beautiful.

The story's message is so touching that it almost makes you forget all of the funny little moments along the way!

X-Men: Days of Future Past

Charles Xavier: Just because someone stumbles and loses their path, doesn't mean they can't be saved.

I thought this was a pretty cool movie for several reasons, but I love this theme: People can change. No matter how lost someone is, they can always come back. 

Mud

Mud: I don't traffic in the truth too often, but... I did love her. I do... love her.
Ellis: She loves you, too. She said it.
Mud: Yeah, I just made mistakes. Heck, we both did. You know this, it's a hard life to keep up with, you can't blame her for getting tired of trying.
Ellis: My dad says you can't count on women loving you. He said you can't trust them.
Mud: [Slowly shaking his head] That's not true. You're a good man, Ellis. You meet a girl half as good as you, you're going to be all right.
Ellis: [Chuckles] You're a good man, too, Mud.
Mud: No. No I ain't Ellis. 

True love: Is it just a myth? The childish fantasy of a naive dreamer? Or can it really happen? This movie took an unexpected turn for me when the central theme turned out to be the "power of love," if you will. Ellis believes in love so much that he goes to great lengths to defend it by helping Mud get back together with Juniper. But as he witnesses one failed relationship after another, has every reason to be bitter, disillusioned, and untrusting.  There is always hope for true, unconditional love, no matter how many times it fails miserably.

Star Trek Into Darkness

This was a very satisfying movie in a lot of ways. I found myself thinking that it was too different from classic Star Trek, then I thought it was way too similar. In the end, I thought it was really good. When you've got characters as cool as Khan, Kirk, and Spock, you just love seeing the old material recycled because it's just so awesome. So Khan died in Star Trek II? No big deal, let's reboot and do a new adventure with the same characters. I can't believe how long it took me to recognize Dr. Marcus as the Dr. Marcus from Star Trek II, silly me. And it had a perfect ending: Khan, back on ice with all of his followers, waiting so be awoken at some future time...

Wide Awake

Joshua A. Beal: Before this year, bullies were just bullies for no reason, weirdos were just weird, and daredevils weren't afraid of anything. Before this year, people I loved lived forever. I spent this year looking for something and wound up seeing everything around me. It's like I was asleep before and finally woke up. Know what? I'm wide-awake now.

This movie honestly wasn't all that good, and that's coming from a mega Shyamalan fan. But, it still had some really good parts, and it's pretty cute at times, too, like when the cute kids climb into bed with their cute parents. There are some familiar religious themes in this movie like we find in The Sixth Sense, Signs, and Unbreakable (namely the brilliant deleted scene with the Catholic priest), but the spiritual overtones in this film are even more overt. 

If we take the time to truly notice the people around us, try to see things from their perspective, and seek to understand them, we may come closer to God than to anyone else.

Maybe it's time that we all wake up and smell the roses a little bit more. 

Awake, my sons; put on the armor of righteousness. Shake off the chains with which ye are bound, and come forth out of obscurity, and arise from the dust (2 Nephi 1:23).