After watching Robot Dreams, I feel really sick. The movie hit me hard, especially at the end, where it overwhelmed me and tore my heart apart.
This animated film is unlike any other. It's beautiful, celebratory, sad, and touching, all without needing words. It's straightforward yet packs a powerful punch, exploring life, feelings, and connections in a profound way.
I loved Robot Dreams. It's a beautifully delicate look into friendship, love, and loneliness. It speaks volumes without saying a word. I saw pieces of myself in both of these characters, which hurt me. urge everyone to watch this.
An episode where John Slattery played himself with references to both Mad Men and The Good Fight is an episode after my own heart, and that's just the secondary storyline. The main one with the moving-forward arc plot where they get Guillermo high, and he and Nadja protecting each other? This season has been so good.
This is the episode where Nuriko's (trans?) status is revealed... The handling of Nuriko is a bit clumsy, but I appreciate it more now than I used too.
Listen. My one surefire weakness is giving Louise a plot where she cares about something, where she’s vulnerable. I’ve cried over the movie because of this, and this is the second time I cried this season because of it after the Christmas episode. In the early seasons, Tina was the most dynamic character in part because they were still figuring her out, and so she grew from an awkward completely socially inept neigh hermit to a confident weirdo who’s found her niche and is unabashedly herself and upfront about what she’s into. She still has struggles and anxieties, but it’s often filtered now into frustrated or proud rebellion about what’s trying to hold her back, like with Tammy’s show, and along the way she genuinely grew into the insightful older sibling with advice. Still great stories with her, but she’s much more set than she once was.
Louise was from the beginning the character the writers were most excited about, first as just the funniest character, the agent of chaos, the shock value fountain, the most unique and distinctive draw in a show still trying to figure itself out. And as it did, it’s like they realized, ‘Okay, Louise can still be that, but she can be more too. We don’t want her to fall by the wayside or be ill fitting with the reputation we’ve developed as a show for weirdos, a show with heart. We want her to embody that just like she embodied our wild start.’
And we got Kuchi Kopi. We got her easy bonds with Bob and Gene, and the hard fought ones with Linda and Tina. We got Rudy, we got Jessica. We got her attachment to her ears in the movie and how it ties her to the grandmother she never knew. We got how she can downplay herself for the sake of the rest of the family and to protect herself in this season’s Christmas.
And now we got this, a look into her anxieties and insecurity. So much of her actions in general are a desperate need to be seen and heard. Nothing gets to her like being dismissed for being ‘just a kid’, like being overlooked, like the possibility of a family member drifting away from her. Or the concept of her personal space or autonomy being invaded.
Part of what makes Louise such a unique character when it comes to kids is what makes her ‘bratty’ is framed as cool, endearing, valid. In a world where children are often reduced to being parental property, to having wants wantonly ignored, to have agency dismissed, Louise fights for hers and never gives in, and the show never tries to strip her of that.
But she is still a kid, and a girl at that. And kids have worries, and girls unfortunately deal with being overlooked for the loudest, most condescending, dismissive, and yes, male voices in the room.
I forgot how obnoxious Wayne can be, and I was even worried it might be too much, but he played his role perfectly. He’s not the wild absurdity of Millie or the personal animosity of Logan, he’s just a jerk. An annoying personification of that dismissive force in a way that Louise can’t really strike out outrageously in turn like she can with the other two.
He wiggles into her head and makes her feel stupid for caring, and then she feels stupid for feeling stupid for caring, and her fears of being overlooked start to feel like they’re becoming a reality.
Her frustrations and outbursts are so often played for humor and taken to wild extremes as she starts plotting retribution and vengeance, setting up the big laugh or catharsis. But here, as she shouts in frustration looking over her pages of spy stories or on Mother’s Day when faced with a block, it’s played like just a kid trying to disguise her frustration at herself and having trouble expressing what’s really wrong, putting up her walls. And just like the Christmas episode, she tries to downplay it and put her mom first, out of love for her and out of dismissal of herself as not as important or as not worth the hassle. If she gives up on herself first, it won’t matter if anyone else does, and so when things seem truly doomed to fail that is often her first line of defense, like when they were being buried alive.
John Roberts might deliver his best dramatic performance as Linda yet. In a role that so often demands hammy exuberance and over the top, in your face personality- just see last week’s episode- this episode asks him to underplay it for once. His delivery has never been so soft, so caring, so selfless. It’s helped by subtle expressions and great framing- Linda’s face in bed overhearing Louise about to throw in the towel is a key example. It’s even more rewarding seeing this after their first big episode together, all those years ago in Mother Daughter Laser Razor, and how much trouble they had connecting. And now Linda just gets her. She channels it in another direction, but she has that same need and demand to be heard.
It all crescendoes into Louise’s finish for her paper, and she’s never sounded more like a child baring her heart and hoping it’s not stepped on, hoping she’s understood. Kristen Schaal has been this character for so long and is such a big part of her success and you can feel the love she has for this role as she speaks, just as you can feel the writers’ affection for her, and how they’re speaking their own experiences through a character that somehow against all odds became the one they’d use most often for that, even over Tina’s burgeoning sense of self and confidence.
Right down to the tender credits, this is an episode that will stick with me and remind me why I love this show, this family, and most of all, Louise Belcher, who along 13 seasons and over a decade of knowing her has become one of my favorite characters in just about anything. Here’s hoping for a decade more.
I really got my shimmer back after watching this film. It’s unashamedly silly but the perfect kind of camp comedy. Please go on vacation again Barb and Star.
Serotonin levels are going through the roof. Completely wacky and out there but it’s something the world really needs right now and somehow it just.. works? It keeps you invested throughout despite the crazy story it’s got going on. This would’ve been amazing to see at the cinema but I’m so glad I didn’t have to wait another goodness knows how long to finally see it. Finally, 3 words. Jamie. Dornan. Seagulls. This scene alone is worth the rental price. Do it if only to see that part, you won’t regret it
3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar’:
I didn’t want it to end.
Part Austin Powers. Part Romy and Michele. Pure sunshine.
It was ABSOLUTELY ridiculous — but somehow, some way, it worked so well. Loads of humor and heart. The perfect tonic after the past year. It makes me miss going to the movies even more.
Bonus Thought: I cannot WAIT to go on vacation again.
I love the inclusion of a trans character during the shopping trip!
Do you remember this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? And this? ...
A dull, unfunny story, that's just there to show you everything Disney owns. In a way, it reminded me of Space Jam II. Both are horrible and just filled with references. The fly/mouse hybrids were disturbing but not as much as the so-called "2D" animation. If Disney hates 2D this much, they should stop pretending to use it. Funny how they also manage to have the real actors look less convincing and faker than the animated ones. Not the first movie that accomplished this. I liked Chip & Dale when I was a kid and saw it a lot, but these are not even the characters from that show and I did not enjoy this movie at all. Was a chore just to finish this.
The cynical side of me wants to call this Everything, everywhere all at once for consoomers.
The optimistic side of me sees Kevin Feige finally pushing the boundaries of his own franchise.
I guess it’s a little bit of both in the end.
Undoubtedly, the best thing the movie has going for it is the Sam Raiminess of it all. His fingerprints are all over it; you’re getting the weird camera angles, camp, his sense of horror, etc. It definitely has more style than some other Marvel movies, though there's also still some of the usual blandness. I'll give it to Marvel for putting in a scene where a talking corpse gives a heartfelt, sentimental speech. There's more of a psychedelic feel to it than the first film, but every time it tends to get really interesting it feels like Raimi's being reigned it to adhere to Marvel's demands. Elizabeth Olsen and Benedict Cumberbatch are giving some of their best performances as these characters to date, and the music’s really well done. But ultimately the film’s Achilles heel is its own script, which is complete junk. The story is thin, messy, nonsensical, and at times flat out embarrassing. The set-up in the first act is very rushed, while the second and third act feel like they’re written by a Reddit fanpage (you just know for a fact that Marvel only went in this direction because of the 2 Batmen that have been announced for The Flash). It’s Marvel at its most ‘producty’, and it’s going to trick a lot of people into thinking the film is better than it is. Regardless, I hope Patrick Stewart got a big paycheck for ruining his own perfect send-off in Logan at the very least. A lot of the story beats don’t make sense either, with most of the characters arcs feeling rushed and nonsensical, even despite the copious amounts of exposition that are desperately trying to tie everything together. The choices made with Wanda in the third act are baffling, and I still don’t know what the takeaway is supposed to be by the end of the film. Her motivation is problematic in general, and I don’t like the use of the [insert plot device] corrupts the mind of the villain trope, which is becoming very overused in the MCU (Ant-Man, Winter Soldier) and just a lazy way of forcing a conflict where the villain stays redeemable. The new character (America Chavez) is a boring, underdeveloped plot device, while Strange himself doesn't even have a real arc. It's the kind of film where a lot happens, but very little leaves an actual impression. I’m not sure what happened, but I get the impression that a significant portion of this film was reworked and rewritten during post production. The action didn’t impress me whatsoever, but that’s been a case with these films for a while now (some of the stuff in Shang-Chi excluded). Some of the visuals look tacky and unfinished, the action’s a bunch of people shooting flashing lights at each other, shots don’t linger enough, people move like animated characters, it’s all the usual bs (and this is coming from someone who thinks the action and effects in the first one are still underappreciated to this day). Inbetween the first film and the sequel, Marvel has become a machine that’s now collapsing under its own pressure. If Disney would allow it, they really should go back to making 2-3 properties a year. The consistent mediocrity of their current output is killing their own longevity.
4/10
Oh, and your kids will be fine watching this. I’ve seen some uproar about the ‘horror’ and violence of the film, and it’s honestly not that shocking. There’s way more creepy stuff in some of the Harry Potter and Indiana Jones films (or just your average 80’s kids film in general).
I wish this show existed when I was a young confused teen. It's so wholesome and lovely, I bawled my eyes out at multiple points. The cast and crew did a lovely job, and you can feel how much care and consideration they put into every single inch of this show. Netflix, bring us season two ASAP.
I'm gonna go read the graphic novel now.
I swear that Daniels have a direct line to whatever it is that I seek in movies. Long time since I laughed and cried so hard and all together at the movies (probably since swiss army man). Will have to watch more, of course... but WOW.
Saw it at the lone screening that is happening in my city, it was packed but, it's a bit of a bummer that more people won't catch this movie in theaters. Especially on IMAX. No matter...
I feel with this movies like Abbed's dad at the end of Community 1x02. Amazing and I REALLY can't wait to see what they do next!
That was the definition of fun. I knew the time loop aspect would make the episode great. Yaz admitting her feelings! I loved this, one of 13s best episodes, honestly.
Such a fun take on the show. I like that the judges share input equally and the role of the guest host makes for a fun dynamic.
