Sing (2016)

This movie is going to be huge. I can feel it.

I wasn’t even going to watch it, sensing it would just be another children’s film about talking animals, but it was far and away the best-reviewed wide release this week. Plus, frankly, I needed the positivity. So, I found a way.

Sing is about Buster Moon (Matthew McConaughey), a koala bear who will lose his theater if he doesn’t pay the bank. He decides to have a singing competition, and tons of people show up—mostly because his dim secretary, pictured above, accidentally sets the prize money at $100,000.

A few of the contestants—a shy elephant, an overworked housewife, a gangster rat, and a gorilla son of a criminal—get real arcs, and so you get a feel for who might succeed. To my surprise, though, it didn’t actually play out like I thought, and the filmmakers should be given real credit for that. This film, especially for a children’s movie, did a great job of keeping me on my toes, always anticipating what might come next.

Well before the ending rolled around, I was sold. This being a film about a singing competition, there were some truly magnificent numbers, and they weren’t even limited to the final act. Jennifer Hudson covers The Beatles at the beginning—oh my goodness. I was tapping my toes and smiling from ear-to-ear, which many movies just don’t get from me.

The animation, too, was absolutely stellar. It might not have been as wholly original as Zootopia, for example, placing animals in a distinctly human world, but it was so well done that I didn’t care. Watch for a flood scene before the third act, and you’ll see what I mean.

Like I said, I wasn’t planning on watching this film. It’s a busy Hollywood season, after all, packed with far more enticing movies for a grown-up crowd. I could not have been more surprised, though, and in the best possible way. This is a truly entertaining film, maybe the most enjoyable of the year. It’ll make you want to sing along.

Sing is in theaters now.

Ms. Crawley reminds me of Kate McKinnon’s Kellyanne Conway.

Election (1999)

Let’s address the elephant in the room—or, perhaps, the ass donkey. This film is going to remind you of the 2016 presidential election, and I doubt you’ll mind. It has an anti-establishment candidate who gets cut, a celebrity running off his own popularity, and a blonde female who has been working towards this her entire life. Oh, and a third party that tries desperately to meddle with the results. Same thing, right?

Election is the second film by Alexander Payne, one of my favorite directors (he directed The Descendants with George Clooney and Nebraska with Bruce Dern). It centers around Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde), a painfully determined high schooler running for student council president, but what most people don’t know is that she had an affair with one of her teachers, and it cost him his career. So, standing in her way is Mr. McAllister (Matthew Broderick, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off), a friend of that man who wants this girl to be cut down to size. Mr. McAllister arranges for an injured former quarterback to run for the spot, and before long the boy’s sister is running too.

Without getting into too many details, there is some clear election tampering that goes on in this film, and nobody comes out of it in one piece. It’s really a bit of a nail-biter, if I may say so myself, kind of like watching the polls go up and down as each ballot is counted, having no idea who’s going to win. And, as it’s set in high school, everything is more cutthroat than it would ever be in real life (or is it?).

Director Payne adds a lot of quirk and character to this film, reminding me a lot of Wes Anderson’s Rushmore, and in the best ways. If you’re a fan of anyone involved, you’ll love Election; and with the real-life imitation coming soon, there’s never been a better time to make your opinions heard.

Election is available on Amazon Prime Video.

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