‘Elio’ (2025)
In the latest animated work by Pixar, young Elio Solis, bullied at school and forced to live on an Air Force base with his aunt Olga after the off-screen death of his parents, feels like he doesn’t fit in on this Earth. Through cosmic happenstance, that thought is answered by a sort of intergalactic U.N. seeking representatives from across the galaxy. Believing Elio to be the leader of Earth (or “Uh-Earth,” as they take his vocal tics as gospel), the citizens of this Communiverse fete him with a hero’s welcome. Unfortunately, Elio’s dream of living among the stars is rocked immediately by a fellow candidate, the ruthless Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett), who responds to rejection by declaring war.
“Elio” was announced by Disney nearly three years ago, and since has received a new set of directors (Domee Shi of “Turning Red” and storyboard artist Madeline Sharafian, replacing Adrian Molina), cast (Olga, voiced by newly minted Oscar-winner Zoe Saldaña, was originally to be voiced by America Ferrera) and, judging from deleted footage seen in its original teaser trailer, a near-total rewrite. The seams are apparent in wild shifts in tone from scene to scene. The opening act, set on Earth, is a slog of by-the-numbers Disney dead-parent trauma, buoyed by a gratingly hyperactive sense of humor. Things pick up: The designs of the aliens are as gorgeous and inventive as anything Pixar has ever produced, and the jokes take on the fizzy, freewheeling tone of classic Disney (one of the Communiverse ambassadors even sounds a bit like Ed Wynn). A particular highlight is wormlike Glordon, Lord Grigon’s lovably dimwitted son who becomes Elio’s first real friend. Ultimately, “Elio” is middle-of-the-pack Pixar, reaching neither the sublime highs of 2008’s “Wall-E” nor the crass, commercial lows of the “Cars” empire. It may not hold up to scrutiny, but it’s made for kids and, in a summer defined by “Minecraft”-mania, parents will welcome this gentle, original story. (Oscar Goff) At Landmark Kendall Square Cinema, 355 Binney St., Cambridge; Apple Cinemas Cambridge, 168 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge Highlands near Alewife and Fresh Pond; and AMC Assembly Row 12, 395 Artisan Way, Assembly Square, Somerville.
‘Cleaner’ (2025)
Knowing that this is a crime thriller, one might be led by the title to think of Jean Reno in “La Femme Nikita” (1990) or Harvey Keitel’s relentless assassin from the American remake “Point of No Return” (1993), but no, this title refers to a literal cleaner – a window cleaner. I think being a window cleaner high in the sky with very little between you and the earth takes more fearlessness and grittier resolve than doing rote, mobster dirty work with two feet firmly on the ground. Joey (Daisy Ridley, “The Last Jedi”) has no fear of heights (the opening scene of her as a young girl sitting on the windowsill of an apartment tower will put a pit in your stomach) and as a result labors around London’s financial district as a window washer, ever dangling from a high. Inside one such glimmering spire of glass Joey is tethered to, an ecoterrorist group has taken a Mc-Corporation’s board hostage and rigged them with explosives, lest their demands and their kangaroo court shenanigans to expose the evils of corporate avarice not go according to plan. Before you can say “Die Hard” (1988), ex-soldier Joey’s the fly in the ointment thwarting the terrorists’ plans at nearly every turn while the phalanx of cops below sit by inert and looking ever skyward. Further complicating matters is Joey’s brother, Michael (Matthew Tuck), who’s neurodiverse and suffers debilitating panic attacks, left only briefly in the charge of a security officer and then caught up in the terrorist plot. Directed by Martin Campbell, who helmed the Bond films “GoldenEye” (1995) and “Casino Royale” (2006), the action is pretty well-choreographed and taut, and Ridley is more than likable as Joey as well as being a match for Tom Cruise in the stunt arena. But the plot and character are now tropes, and have been done better before. Clive Owen drops in briefly for a paycheck as one of the leaders of the baddies, referred to as Smiling God, alongside the more badass Taz Skylar as Wrathful God, posturing and flourishing philosophical mumbo-jumbo about the earth being infected with a human virus. They’ve got nothing on Hans Gruber. (Tom Meek) On Max.
Cambridge writer Tom Meek’s reviews, essays, short stories and articles have appeared in WBUR’s The ARTery, The Boston Phoenix, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, The Charleston City Paper and SLAB literary journal. Tom is also a member of the Boston Society of Film Critics and rides his bike everywhere.
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