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I know what some of you are probably thinking. A Looney Tunes movie? Really? What’s next, Paw Patrol and The Adventures of Timmy the Tooth? But hear me out. Sure, the cartoon-loving kid in me was super excited to see these characters on the big screen, but nostalgia wasn’t the only reason I wanted to check out The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie. The early critical buzz for this film was surprisingly positive, so I had to see it for myself. I wanted to know if the movie lived up to the hype, and after finally getting a chance to watch it, I'm happy to report that it's a total blast.
The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie was directed by Pete Browngardt, and it stars the voices of Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, and Peter MacNicol. In the film, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig were raised together by a man named Farmer Jim, and even though Jim has passed, they still live in the same house where they grew up. They seem to lead a fairly normal life (or at least as normal as Looney Tunes characters can be), but that all changes when a mysterious UFO crash-lands near their neighborhood. An evil alien creates a mind-control drug to take over the planet, and of course, the only people who can stop him are Daffy, Porky, and their new friend Petunia Pig. If you’re a longtime Looney Tunes fan like me, you’ll be happy to hear that The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie sticks very closely to the original cartoons. Unlike, say, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, this movie doesn’t reinvent its beloved characters for a new generation. Porky and Daffy look and sound exactly like they did when I was a kid, and they get up to all the same hilariously ridiculous shenanigans that made me love them all those years ago. That being said, there is one big difference. The classic Looney Tunes was basically just a sketch comedy show, so the stories were never the series’s string point. In fact, they were usually little more than excuses to showcase a bunch of over-the-top slapstick humor. They rarely had much genuine heart or humanity to them, but The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie bucks that trend. For starters, the film highlights two key relationships that will melt your heart: Porky and Daffy, and Porky and Petunia. Let’s start with the first duo. Like I said, Porky and Daffy were raised together by Farmer Jim, and the movie wastes no time showing us how their unbreakable bond grew from childhood to the present day. It’s more than enough to get us on board with these characters, but The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie doesn’t stop there. Soon after the film begins, Jim dies. On screen, it actually looks like the guy just walks away, but director Pete Browngardt gives adult viewers enough clues that we can easily figure out what’s really going on. It’s an unexpectedly poignant scene, so if you’ve ever lost a loved one, you’ll be sure to feel for Porky and Daffy. What’s more, before Jim leaves, he tells his adopted sons they’ll be okay as long as they stick together, and that line seals the deal for us. In that moment of grief, we want these two characters to follow the farmer’s advice, so from then on, we care deeply about this unlikely pair both as individuals and as a team. In contrast, Petunia joins the fray as an adult, and from the moment Porky lays eyes on her, he’s absolutely smitten. She doesn’t reciprocate right away, but it doesn’t take long for their relationship to advance beyond mere friendship. And when that happens, they’re adorable together. Most notably, there are a number of times when the pigs stutter in perfect harmony, and while that might sound a bit cheesy on paper, those moments are guaranteed to put a big smile on your face. These two relationships are the heart and soul of The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie, and as the story progresses, it essentially ends up being an examination of the dynamics of real-life human relationships. Through its over-the-top characters and their often ridiculous antics, the film explores love, loss, and the ups and downs we all experience with our friends and loved ones, so it’s tough to distill just one message from it. This movie is simply about what it means to be human, and it embodies its various interlocking themes in a way that’s simple enough for kids to understand but also deep enough for adults to appreciate. It’s exactly the kind of uplifting, soul-nourishing experience all family films should strive to be, so if you’re even remotely the kind of person who would enjoy a feature-length Looney Tunes flick, I highly recommend that you check out The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie.
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Early reviews are powerful. When I first heard about Black Bag, I thought the film had potential, but I wasn’t entirely convinced. If I’m being honest, I was actually a bit skeptical, so I decided I’d only watch the movie if the critics gave it a thumbs up. I anxiously awaited the day their reviews would start to drop, and when they finally did, I was floored. To say the reactions to Black Bag were positive would be an understatement. The film received nearly universal acclaim (as of this writing, it still has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes with over 150 reviews!), so of course, I just had to check it out for myself. I bought a ticket for opening weekend as soon as I got the chance, and I couldn’t wait to see if the movie lived up to the hype.
Black Bag was directed by Steven Soderbergh, and it stars Cate Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abela, Tom Burke, Naomie Harris, Regé-Jean Page, and Pierce Brosnan. In the film, George and his wife Kathryn are both British intelligence agents, and despite living in a world of deceit and duplicity, they manage to maintain a stable and loving relationship. But that all changes when George is tasked with finding out who stole a top-secret computer program called Severus. He’s given a list of potential leakers, and to his chagrin, his wife is one of the suspects. This unfortunate turn of events threatens to tear their marriage apart, and if Kathryn really did steal the program, it’ll force George to choose between the two great loves of his life–his country and his wife. When you first read that plot description, it sounds like an awesome premise for a spy thriller, but unfortunately, the execution in Black Bag doesn’t hold up its end of the bargain. To be fair, there’s a lot to like in this movie. Most notably, the cinematography is top notch, and the story takes some pretty riveting twists and turns…or at least, they would be riveting if I cared about the characters. See, for all this film gets right, it makes one fatal misstep: the characters are boring. Take George, for example. He’s brought to life by Michael Fassbender, and the guy goes almost the entire movie without cracking a smile. He comes across as all business all the time, even when he’s talking to his wife (and even when they’re in the bedroom!), and to his credit, Fassbender plays the part perfectly. He doesn’t let the slightest bit of unwanted levity shine through his character’s unbreachable veneer of seriousness, so you totally believe that this genuinely is his personality. It’s an A-plus performance, but there’s just one problem: it doesn’t make for a compelling protagonist. Sure, that vibe would’ve been fine for a side character, but as the lead, George ends up feeling rather soulless. He’s almost entirely bereft of humanity, so no matter how gripping his story may be on paper, I simply couldn’t bring myself to care about it. And when we turn to Fassbender’s costars, they’re not much better. A number of the characters in Black Bag are similarly mechanical, and the ones who break that mold aren’t given a ton to do. Either way, they all come across as flat and uninteresting, so after about a half hour, the experience started to feel more like homework than entertainment. On a thematic level, Black Bag deals with ideas Catholics should appreciate, but once again, the weak characters sap the story of all its force. For instance, in typical spy thriller fashion, the stolen software has the power to wipe out thousands of innocent people, so the film could’ve served as a powerful witness to the value of human life. Similarly, since George and Kathryn are married, their relationship could’ve highlighted some important truths about the marriage bond. But because Fassbender’s performance lacks humanity, you never feel the weight of those great themes. You get the impression that George cares about Severus because it’s his job, not because he truly values the lives it threatens, and despite what he says about his wife, his love for her seems almost passionless. Intellectually, all the pieces are there, but like its lead character, this movie just has no soul. It’s the cinematic equivalent of reading a list of bullet points, so if you ask me, I’d recommend giving Black Bag a pass. You have to step outside your comfort zone every once in a while. That common advice is true in almost every area of life, and movies are no exception. If you’ve read my reviews before, you know my tastes lean very heavily towards what are commonly called “genre” films–horror, sci-fi, fantasy, and action–but when I first heard about There’s Still Tomorrow, I decided to take a leap of faith and give it a shot. It’s about as far from my typical wheelhouse as anything I’ve ever seen in a theater, so this was a real stretch for me. I walked into my screening with little more than a hope and a prayer that I wouldn’t regret the decision, and now that I’ve finally seen the movie, I’m happy to report that I was not disappointed.
There’s Still Tomorrow was directed and co-written by Paola Cortellesi, and Cortellesi also stars in the film alongside Romana Maggiora Vergano, Emanuela Fanelli, Valerio Mastandrea, Francesco Centorame, Vinicio Marchioni, and Giorgio Colangeli. It’s a black-and-white Italian dramedy set shortly after the close of World War II, and it follows a middle-aged woman named Delia who lives with her husband Ivano and their three children. Plotwise, there’s not much to say about this movie. It focuses more on the characters and the themes than on the story, so you’d be hard-pressed to find a consistent narrative thread that runs through the entire film. It’s largely just an examination of Delia’s daily life and the crosses she has to bear as a woman in post-war Italy, so audiences used to mainstream Hollywood filmmaking might struggle with this slower, more meandering approach to the art. But if you’re okay just sitting back and following these people as they go about their normal, unassuming existence, you’ll find a treasure trove of beauty and meaning. Let’s start with the performances. They’re the heart and soul of this movie, and almost everybody in the cast is fantastic. For instance, Valerio Mastandrea plays the ill-tempered, hyper-macho husband who alternates between hitting his wife and insulting her in front of the kids, and if you’ve ever met anybody like that, you’ll totally buy this guy’s performance. Mastandrea carries himself with the gruff, arrogant air of a longtime abuser, so even when he’s not actively assailing his wife, you’ll loathe him and desperately want him to get his just desserts. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, Paola Cortellesi plays Delia as a tender, loving woman who just wants what’s best for her family, but she also infuses the character with a strength and resilience someone like Ivano could only dream of. Her husband has led a relatively easy life, but she’s had to endure years of abuse and mistreatment both at home and from society at large. On top of the beatings and verbal assaults she receives from Ivano, she also earns less at work simply because she’s a woman, and her lecherous father-in-law touches her inappropriately whenever she gets close to him. The poor woman has very little respite from the misogynistic patriarchy that permeates her world, and Cortellesi beautifully manifests the character’s inner fortitude as well as the constant pain that stubbornly refuses to leave her side. She almost makes you feel that torment yourself, so you’ll come to love Delia and sympathize with her plight almost immediately after you meet her. And at its core, that’s what There’s Still Tomorrow is really about. It’s an examination of the hardships women had to endure in that era of Italian history (and, by extension, the struggles women all over the world still experience today), and the film approaches that theme from a few different angles. It obviously focuses primarily on Delia’s story, but there’s also a subplot involving her daughter, Marcella, that lulls you into a sense of cozy security before hitting you with the disturbing truth. It’s a clever sneak attack that shows you just how widespread this misogyny really is, so in case you didn’t get the point with Delia, you’re sure to see it with her daughter. As you can probably guess, that pervasive abuse and mistreatment can begin to feel pretty heavy after a while, so I’m glad this movie is a comedy as well as a drama. The jokes had me and the small crowd at my screening laughing out loud throughout the film’s entire two-hour runtime, so no matter how dark the story got, it never became oppressive. In fact, the overall experience was surprisingly lighthearted. On the whole, this movie is just as fun as it is heartbreaking, so it allows you to have your cake and eat it too. That being said, the story isn’t all doom and gloom. There’s Still Tomorrow ends on an unexpectedly hopeful note, and I really wish I could talk about it in detail. But that would ruin the surprise, so I can only dance around it with vague generalities. Suffice it to say, this conclusion is a breath of fresh air in a cinematic world where half the population has their dignity trampled upon every single day, and director Paola Cortellesi executes the finale with such triumphant joy that you won’t just walk out of the theater. You’ll float out, and you’ll be inspired to do your part to make the world a better place. Seriously, this is one of the most beautiful endings I’ve ever seen in a film, so in my book, it cements There’s Still Tomorrow as an instant classic. I’m so glad I went outside my comfort zone and gave this movie a shot, so even if it’s outside your typical wheelhouse too, I highly recommend checking it out anyway. It’s hilarious, heartbreaking, and moving in all the right ways, so if you're a fan of great cinema, I think you’ll love it just as much as I did. |
Jp Nunezis a longtime film buff and theology nerd with master's degrees in theology and philosophy from Franciscan University of Steubenville. His favorite movie genres are horror, superheroes, and giant monsters. Archives
April 2025
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