Widows & Dinotrux

In this week's chaotic symphony of opinions first impressions matter as we break down the Top 5 Opening Scenes in movie history. Whether the rest of the movie is a masterpiece or not, these scenes captured our attention from the outset. From Kevin Costner peeing into a cup and drinking it in the opening moments of WATERWORLD to the librarian from GHOSTBUSTERS to Michael’s first kill in HALLOWEEN, literally none of these movies are mentioned.

Five years after Steve McQueen’s 12 YEARS A SLAVE won best picture at the Oscars, the director returned with WIDOWS (2018) which tells the story of four women with nothing in common except a debt left behind by their spouses’ criminal activities. Hoping to forge a future on their own terms, they join forces to pull off a heist. Seeing well established genre tropes handled by a great cast and a serious director is a delight and I think it’s interesting that this feels closest to artful crime movies like HEAT and THIEF, because those are movies obsessed with masculinity whereas this one is obviously about femininity. One thing that’s noticeable is there’s no macho competition between them like there would be if men were involved. I haven't been able to stop thinking about that shot with the camera mounted on the exterior of the car as Jack Mulligan rants and raves since I saw it.
 
We finish things up with a look at DreamWorks TV's DINOTRUX. The series premiere introduces the basic premise of the show: in a prehistoric world, dinosaurs and trucks evolved into intelligent hybrid creatures called Dinotrux, who live in different regions and have differing abilities. Ty Rux, a friendly and heroic Tyrannosaurus Trux, sets out with the noble aim of creating a more egalitarian society by uniting the various species of Dinotrux to work in harmony, foiling the plans of the villainous D-Structs along the way. While it’s tempting to decry the concept (construction vehicles that are also dinosaurs - a fact which somehow almost bypassed Cris) as derivative, gimmicky and purposefully ripe for merchandising opportunities, there are attempts to provide more substance as the show teaches viewers to explore the world around them, think creatively, and use their brains to engineer solutions to problems. The designs are imaginative, and the animation gives the characters a real weight. The vocal work is mostly excellent though I hate the ubiquity of the surfer dude voice. As ever it's the existential questions about these worlds which make the most fun to discuss, for example what is the life-cycle of a Trux? Are they functionally immortal in a Theseus's Ship type way if they have enough spare parts to repair themselves with? And if they’re made of complex robotic parts and sophisticated gears and whatnot which they can understand and use to repair themselves and each other when needed, then why does it take them so long to figure out how to build something as simple as a bridge? Probably best not to ask.

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