10s Movie Review - Wonder

Director: Stephen Chbosky
Genre: Drama/ Family
Runtime: 113 minutes
Year: 2017
Starring: Jacob Tremblay, Julia Roberts, Owen Wilson, Izabela Vidovic, Mandy Patinkin, Noah Jupe

Description: The story of August Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), a boy with facial differences who enters the fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

I WATCHED THIS MOVIE FOR MY 2023 MOVIE CHALLENGE
WEEK 45: A MOVIE WITH A CHIL AS THE LEADING CHARACTER
 
Review: It is not easy to be different. Especially when you look different from others. So different that they stare at you, whisper about you, point at you or don’t even dare to touch you. It is the life of Auggie Pullman as soon as he enters fifth grade. His parents have long kept him at home, but now it’s time for him to learn to be among other kids. And that they learn to look past his appearance.

Aggie Pullman has Treacher Collins syndrome, an extremely rare hereditary condition that makes his face look distorted from birth. In his case, it even required a slew of surgeries to keep him alive. Despite the genetic component, it is possible that no one else in the family has it.

“Wonder” is a typical American family drama, in which children bully each other for being different, but then gradually accept each other once they get to know each other better. A sympathetic feel-good movie that never colors outside the lines, except perhaps for Auggies condition. Jacob Tremblay does an excellent job as Auggie.

What makes “Wonder” so likeable, besides its well-intentioned message about acceptance, is that no one is singled out as the culprit for the main characters’ misfortune. We get to see not only Auggie’s perspective, but also that of his older sister Via who has accepted that the family’s life revolves around her little brother and the she must solve her typical teenage girl problems on her own. We also get to see the perspective of Via’s best friend, who all of a sudden is very popular and is hardly talking to Via anymore. And Auggies first friend Jack, who accepts him at first but then gets into a fight with him when he pretends not to accept him for fear of the class bully. All children have their own problems, fears and motivations.

“Wonder” is predictable, but it’s such a heartwarming film, that you cannot help but smile in the end.

Rating: 4/ 5

Netflix Friday - Volume 91

Some Netflix film tips for the weekend! And there is something for everyone, since I picked a movie for all the different genres.
 

Action: The Foreigner (2017)
A humble businessman (Jackie Chan) with a buried past seeks justice when his daughter is killed in an act of terrorism. A cat-and-mouse conflict ensues with a government official (Pierce Brosnan), whose past may hold clues to the killers’ identities.
 

Drama: Straight Outta Compton (2015)
The rap group NWA emerges from the mean streets of Compton in Los Angeles, California, in the mid-1980s and revolutionizes Hip Hop culture with their music and tales about life in the hood.
 

Comedy: The Big Short (2015)
In 2006-2007 a group of investors bet against the US mortgage market. In their research, they discover how flawed and corrupt the market is.
 

Animation: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (2002)
A wild stallion is captured by humans and slowly loses the will to resist training, yet, throughout his struggles for freedom, the stallion refuses to let go of the hope of one day returning home to his herd.
 

Romance: The Theory of Everything (2014)
A look at the relationship between the famous physicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and his wife (Felicity Jones).
 

Horror: The Crazies (2010)
After a strange and insecure plane crash, an unusual toxic virus enters a quaint farming town. A young couple (Radha Mitchell, Timothy Olyphant) are quarantined, but they fight for survival along with help from a couple of people.
 

Science Fiction: Upgrade (2018)
Set in the near-future, technology controls nearly all aspects of life. But when the world of Grey (Logan Marshall-Green), a self-labeled technophobe, is turned upside down, his only hope for revenge is an experimental computer chip implant.
 

Crime: The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
A motorcycle stunt rider (Ryan Gosling) turns to robbing banks as a way to provide for his lover (Eva Mendes) and their newborn child, a decision that puts him on a collision course with an ambitious rookie cop (Bradley Cooper) navigating a department ruled by a corrupt detective.
 

Thriller: Gerald’s Game (2017)
A couple (Carla Cugino, Bruce Greenwood) tries to spice up their marriage in a remote lake house. After the husband dies unexpectedly, the wife is left handcuffed to their bed frame and must fight to survive and break free.
 

Documentary: The River Runner (2021)
A kayaker sets out to become the first man to paddle the four great rivers that flow from Tibet’s sacred Mount Kailash.
 

Family: Wonder (2017)
Bases on the New York Times bestseller, this movie tells the incredibly inspiring and heartwarming story of August Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), a boy with facial differences who enters the fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.

Movie Trailer Sunday (294)

Here are this wee'k's trailers.

From the Land of the Moon Director: Nicola Garcia
Description: In 1950s France, Gabrielle (Marion Cotillard) is a passionate, free-spirited woman who is in a loveless marriage and falls for another man when she is sent away to the Alps to treat her kidney stones. Gabrielle yearns to free herself and run away with André.
Starring: Marion Cotillard, Louis Garrel, Alex Brendemühl
Trailer: Trailer "From the Land of the Moon"
Comment: I love Marion Cotillard, she is Always fantastic in these smaller films.

Wonder Director: Stephen Chbosky
Description: Based on the New York Times bestseller, WONDER tells the incredibly inspiring and heartwarming story of August Pullman (Jacob Tremblay), a boy with facial differences who enters fifth grade, attending a mainstream elementary school for the first time.
Starring: Owen Wilson, Julia Roberts, Jacob Tremblay, Mandy Patinkin
Trailer: Trailer "Wonder"
Comment: I hope this isn't a cheesy movie.

Wind River Director: Taylor Sheridan
Description: An FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) teams with the town's veteran game tracker (Jeremy Renner) to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation.
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Jon Bernthal, Graham Greene
Trailer: Trailer "Wind River"
Comment: It reminds me of "Thunderheart", but then in the snow.

War Machine Director: David Michôd
Description: An absurdist war story for our times, writer-director David Michôd (Animal Kingdom) recreates a U.S. General's roller-coaster rise and fall as part reality, part savage parody - raising the specter of just where the line between them lies today. His is an exploration of a born leader's ultra-confident march right into the dark heart of folly. At the story's core is Brad Pitt's sly take on a successful, charismatic four-star general who leapt in like a rock star to command NATO forces in Afghanistan, only to be taken down by a journalist's no-holds-barred exposé.
Starring: Brad Pitt, ANthony Michael Hall, Anthony Hayes, Alan Ruck, Will Poulter, Ben Kingsley, Topher Grace, Tilda Swinton, RJ Cyler, Scoot McNairy,
Trailer: Trailer "War Machine"
Comment: I love that this is coming to Netflix. Going to find this very funny, I think!

Spider-Man: Homecoming Director:
Description: Following the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), Peter Parker attempts to balance his life in high school with his career as the web-slinging superhero Spider-Man.
Starring: Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr., Marisa Tomei, Chris Evans, Martin Starr, Michael Keaton, Donald Glover, Angourie Rice, Jon Favreau
Trailer: Trailer "Spider-Man: Homecoming"
Comment: Why is Tony Stark's image bigger than Peter Parker's on the movie poster?