Short review of "Moana" (2016), Ron Clemens & Don Hall.

The most breathtaking computer animation you have seen until now. It is a fun ride, but, and you will take umbrage at my comment, it is a fully outmoded feminist indoctrination pamphlet. Since animated movies have long production periods, it would be ingenuous to blame Disney for not predicting the conservative/reactionary (and the general population´s) backlash against identity politics and the support for the worldwide Trump times.  

The Ocean, which chooses Moana for her mission, is the Government; Crab is a pick-up artist from the hood/Jersey; demi-god Maui is the alpha dude constantly emasculated until he can prove that is worthy of the despondent dumped Goddess (he stole her heart, dammit!), and Moana is the girl that wants to prove to Daddy that she can find her own path and save the world (or go to New York and make it big in the fashion magazine industry, take your pick). I would love to have been sitting in the executive meetings for this one, just listening to the arguments for and against each plot point from a monetary perspective.

Short Review of "Profondo Rosso" (1975), Darío Argento.

A granddaddy of the modern horror genre, this Dario Argento near-masterpiece has it all. Creepy kids, inventive deaths, mysterious locations, parapsychology, lots of visual humor, suspenseful cat-and-mouse scenes, dynamic camerawork, equally good mise-en-scene and impressive clean colors, especially red. Marred by terrible dubbing in Italian, some stilted performances and a contemporary 1970s score that wants you to kill the inventor of the synthesizer. Socially pretty modern. Or well, European. Well worth of your time.

Short review of "Elle" (2016), Paul Verhoeven.

Verhoeven surely did a number on film critics. Some dim-witted people mistook "Starship Troppers" for a straight action movie, when it was a satire about fascism. This time my favorite subversive director presented a satire about modern feminism. It is in a way the anti-"Fifty shades of Gray". Every dark fantasy is on the screen, from the incredibly beautiful middle-aged woman to the emasculated men, the never-ending female empowerment and the disposable monsters that are the parents. Not to talk about rape (don´t fret, is right in the first scene). I can´t believe somebody took "Elle" as a straight post-feminist movie, but the proof is on the Internet: this dark comedy is being called a "thriller". I wonder if those critics are doubting themselves over a second viewing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3716530/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Capsule review of "The Girl with All the Gifts" (2016), Colm McCarthy

And then, the wound opened by "28 Days Later" is finally closed shut by a child. The stupendous "The Girl with All the Gifts" (2016), directed by Colm McCarthy from the novel by Mike Carey, mixes biological fear with zombie survivalism to great effect. It is not horror, but science fiction, a meditative evolutionary Apocalypse. It is the optimistic "Threads" of zombie movies.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4547056/