PREMISE
A young girl who goes through a difficult experience begins to see everyone’s imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up.
THE GOOD STUFF
JOHNNY KRASINSKI- I will admit I wasn’t the most ardent watcher of the office even though I consider myself a fan of that show. That being said, I am so much more excited for John Krasinski the filmmaker than I ever was at any point for John Krasinski the actor. Respectfully.
I remember when a quiet place came out and it just seemed that the overall opinion of Krasinski as a director was that of someone who was a complete novice. People spoke of his potential as if he wasn’t already doing this directing thing because he hadn’t done something as big as A quiet place before. Potential isn’t the right word. He is VERY good. He is as technically sound a director as many other directors who have more clout with film critics than he does as of this moment. Greatness is on the horizon.
Oh, and his performance in this movie is pretty good too.
Cailey Fleming– You know, for a while there it just seemed as if we were in this drought of subpar to below-par child performances in major motion pictures. (I won’t name the movies that had these performances because I do make myself cringe a little bit to get too critical of a specific child’s performance in a film) But in 2024 we’ve had films like Ghostbusters Frozen empire, abigail, and now this. All of these films have kid performances that really stand out, and carry the films that they’re in.
There’s a lot for Fleming to do in this movie. She tackles the heavy stuff very well, she’s really funny when it’s time to be, and she’s just got a screen presence that makes you root for her very easily. Really impressive on a multitude of levels.
The 3rd act– I believe this movie to have one of the more satisfying endings of any film in 2024. With the exception of one minor setback, (which I will talk about in a second) the third act of this movie completely pays off what the first two acts of the movie build up to.
Can’t say more than now without spoiling things.
THE BAD STUFF
The “Twist”– Again, I can only be vague here so please forgive me. The twist that this movie pulls off pulls it off well enough. However, this same twist has been pulled off in many movies before, and those movies are really famous because they pull this exact twist. Really famous movies. To even name those films would spoil the ending.
To anybody who has seen those movies you will notice certain peculiarities very early, and the twist is very easy to call from the beginning of the second act onward.
Dramatics– Falsely Advertised. No other way to put it. This film is a drama ladies and gentlemen. Though I can see why the advertising of this movie is littered with very famous names, and advertises itself as a comedy. The false advertising is so evident. This is heavy s*** here. Real-life stuff that might be triggering to audience members. It must be said once again that this is a fantastically written and directed film…but man, when the heavy stuff hits it really does hit and perhaps it hits a little bit too hard.
You remember that montage from the beginning of TOY STORY 3? Or the montage from up? Or what happened to Bing Bong in Inside out? Those films are pretty famous for how hard those emotional scenes hit. And there’s plenty of that kind of emotional heft going around in this movie.
THE UGLY STUFF
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Is IF one of the best films of the year? Well… no. However, it is a pretty damn good film all together.
We got some pretty glamorous family films coming up later on this year. Films like Moana 2, wicked, mufasa, despicable me 4, and the like. It’ll be really interesting to see if any of them are as good as this one is.
(RIP LOUIS GOSSETT JR)
IF is in theaters now
