Crisp Criticism - "The Boxtrolls", "The Maze Runner", "We Are the Best!"

by
Julien Faddoul

The Boxtrolls ***

A human boy raised by trash-collecting trolls attempts to save them from an evil pest exterminator.

Dark, Dickensian, at times gross stop-motion film from Laika about the detrimental shyness that one formulates with one’s own families, politics and class-system. It oozes invention with every scene.

d – Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable

w – Irena Brignull, Adam Pava   (Based on the Novel by Alan Snow)

pd – Paul Lasaine

m – Dario Marianelli

ed – Edie Bleiman Ichioka

p – Travis Knight, David Bleiman Ichioka

Cast: Ben Kingsley, Isaac Hempstead Wright, Elle Fanning, Jared Harris, Toni Collette, Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Richard Ayoade, Tracy Morgan

The Maze Runner *

Set in a post-apocalyptic world, an assemblage of boys learn, after having their memories erased, that they're all trapped in a maze that will require them to join forces to escape.

An electric first act that sets up the chain of power and the horror of the maze, is totally squandered by a plot that consistently infuriates with nonsensical developments and unanswered questions.

d – Wes Ball

w – Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, T.S. Nowlin   (Based on the Novel by James Dashner)

ph – Enrique Chediak

pd – Marc Fisichella

m – John Paesano

ed – Dan Zimmerman

cos – Christine Bieselin Clark, Simonetta Mariano

p – Marty Bowen, Wyck Godfrey, Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, Gotham Group, Lee Stollman, Lindsay Williams

Cast: Dylan O’brien, Aml Ameen, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Ki Hong Lee, Will Poulter, Blake Cooper, Kaya Scodelario, Dexter Darden, Patricia Clarkson, Jacob Latimore

We Are the Best! **

Three girls in 1980s Stockholm decide to form a punk band.

A return to form by its director that uses a fascination with Punk Rock to convey the universal episodes of girlhood. It remains a slight affair but with a great deal of benevolence.

wd – Lukas Moodysson

ph – Ulf Brantas

pd – Paola Holmer

ed – Michal Leszczylowski

cos – Moa Li Lemhagen Schalin

p – Lars Jonsson

Cast: Mira Barkhammar, Mira Grosin, Liv LeMoyne, Mattias Wiberg, Jonathan Salomonsson, Alvin Strollo, Anna Rydgren, Peter Eriksson, Charlie Falk