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I have a confession to make–I’ve never seen the original animated Lilo & Stitch. Disney movies have just never been my thing, so despite all the love that film gets, I never had much of a desire to watch it. In fact, I didn’t think I’d ever have any interest in this IP, but that all changed when I saw the trailer for the live-action remake. I thought it actually looked pretty good, so I decided to finally give this beloved story a shot. I bought a ticket for opening weekend as soon as I got the chance, and I hoped I’d like this new movie just as much as most people like the first one.
Lilo & Stitch was directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, and it stars Maia Kealoha, Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Billy Magnussen, Tia Carrere, Hannah Waddingham, Courtney B. Vance, Zach Galifianakis, and Chris Sanders. In the film, Lilo is a young girl who leads a somewhat troubled life. Her parents died some time ago, so now, the only family she has left is her sister, Nani. To make matters worse, Lilo doesn’t have any friends, and a lot of her schoolmates like to pick on her. All of that stress leads the poor girl to act out, so in the minds of many, she’s a bit of a problem child. But that begins to change when she meets a furry creature named Stitch. Stitch is a genetic experiment from outer space, and he’s on the run from the alien that made him. Through sheer luck, the little guy’s flight brings him to the island where Lilo resides, and when the two titular characters meet, they become instant friends. They learn to mend their deep wounds through an even deeper love, but before they can live happily ever after, they have to outrun the galactic scientist who wants nothing more than to bring his creation back to his home planet. Like I said before, I’ve never seen the original Lilo & Stitch, so I can’t tell you how this new version of the story stacks up against its predecessor. All I can do is judge the movie as its own unique work of art, and from that perspective, it’s a very mixed bag at best. Let’s start with the good. As I’m sure many of you know, this film is essentially a tale of two troubled individuals who learn that you don’t need to be perfect to be worthy of love. Despite the bad things they do, Lilo and Stitch still deserve a family that will love them and accept them for who they are, and as a Christian, I love that. It’s a beautiful allegory for the way God loves us and the way He calls us to love one another, so on a thematic level, this is easily one of the best movies of the year. But as I’ve said in other reviews, a film can’t get by on its message alone. It has to bring that message to life in an enjoyable way, and that’s where Lilo & Stitch falls short. Take the plot, for instance. It’s the same “person befriends an alien who’s being hunted” story we’ve seen numerous times before in movies like E. T., Sonic the Hedgehog, and Bumblebee, so even if this wasn’t a remake, the plot still wouldn’t win any points for originality. That being said, a cliched story doesn’t automatically doom a film to failure. It can still win us over if it executes its familiar plot well, but unfortunately, Lilo & Stitch doesn’t do that. See, this movie isn’t just a heartwarming sci-fi adventure. It’s also a gag-a-minute comedy, and in my opinion, it’s simply not very funny. Sure, there are a handful of truly knee-slapping moments–like an early scene where Nani tries to secretly coach Lilo through a brief conversation with a social worker–but the vast majority of the jokes just don’t land. To be fair, I think young children will probably find this brand of humor absolutely hilarious, but as an adult, I found myself yawning and rolling my eyes way more often than I would’ve liked. In fact, the unfunny comedy is so pervasive it makes Lilo & Stitch feel like a chore you have to endure with clenched teeth, and that’s a real shame. Like I said, at its core this story is really touching, and when the titular characters aren’t trying to make you laugh, they’re actually quite likable. But for me, the unamusing humor completely overpowered those good elements and kept me from enjoying them, so at the end of the day, I’m sad to report that I wouldn’t recommend Disney’s latest live-action remake.
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The Old Woman with the Knife is the rare film that completely came out of nowhere for me. I had never even heard of this movie until I looked at my local theater’s weekend slate, but when I learned it was a Korean action thriller, I was instantly intrigued. Foreign films that get even limited theatrical releases here in the states tend to be pretty good, so as a big action fan, I figured I’d give this one a shot. I bought a ticket for the earliest screening I could make, and I walked into the theater excited to see what this movie had in store.
The Old Woman with the Knife was written and directed by Min Kyu-dong, and it stars Hyeyeong Lee, Kim Sung-cheol, Yeon Woo-jin, Kim Moo-yul, and Shin Sia. The film follows Hornclaw, an aging assassin who’s basically a female John Wick. This woman is a legend in her field, but her age is finally starting to catch up to her. She's recently been experiencing some concerning health issues, so she doesn't have quite the same facility of movement she enjoyed in her younger years. One day, a promising up-and-comer named Bullfight joins Hornclaw’s organization and quickly positions himself as her heir apparent, but he has his sights set on a different prize. Unbeknownst to Hornclaw, she actually has a deep connection to this young buck, and as the truth about their relationship comes to light, the stakes of their high-risk business rise higher and higher. From that brief plot synopsis, you’re probably expecting The Old Woman with the Knife to feature a boatload of bloody action, and on that count, the movie totally delivers. We get everything from guns to blades to hand-to-hand combat, and it’s all executed with pinpoint precision. Granted, the idea of a sixty-something woman being able to go toe to toe with a man in the prime of his life stretches credulity a bit, but these actors and stunt performers are such excellent martial artists you won’t have a problem suspending your disbelief. They make you feel the weight of every stab, strike, and throw in the film, so you’ll be so caught up in the violent beauty of it all you won’t care how old Hornclaw is. On top of that great action, The Old Woman with the Knife also features a number of excellent performances. Everybody in this cast is 100% believable, but hands down the best of the bunch is Lee Hye-young. She’s the actress who plays Hornclaw, and she absolutely nails every emotion her character experiences. When Hornclaw is working, Lee exudes the calm confidence of a master practicing her craft, but when her declining health rears its ugly head, you can tell that the woman is in genuine distress. There are also a handful of times when Lee has to display a nurturing, almost motherly compassion, and to the surprise of no one, she knocks those scenes out of the park as well. Simply put, The Old Woman with the Knife is about as well-made as any American action flick, but that’s only half the story. If you dig beneath all the bloody action and the ugliness of these assassins’ lives, you’ll find a surprising moral core that’s nothing short of captivating. To be fair, I wouldn’t quite say the film has a particular message the way something like Oldboy does, but it manages to use its violent stylings to affirm the dignity of human life in a number of ways. For instance, Hornclaw’s organization is only supposed to carry out hits on the worst of the worst, and part of the old woman’s journey involves realizing that her boss has recently been losing sight of that important guiding principle. Along similar lines, when the credits begin to roll, Hornclaw herself isn’t the cold-hearted killer she once was, and her relationship with Bullfight ends up being unexpectedly moving. I can’t get much more specific than that without spoiling some of the movie’s surprises, but suffice it to say that The Old Woman with the Knife is a nearly perfect blend of brutal violence and moral substance. It’s just as wildly entertaining as it is touching and uplifting, so if you’re a fan of bloody action thrillers, I highly recommend that you put this film on your radar. NB: Most of you probably won’t be able to catch The Old Woman with the Knife right away, as it’s only been given a very limited theatrical release here in the states. But the movie should be hitting VOD in just a few short months, so if you want to check it out, you’ll get the chance to see it pretty soon. For us Catholics in the United States, this last week and a half has been a time of great rejoicing. We have a new Holy Father, and to the surprise of everybody, he’s one of us. Leo XIV is the first American pope, and to mark this historic occasion, I want to talk about a film that highlights one of the primary concerns of his pontificate. A few days after his election as leader of the worldwide Church, he explained that he chose the name “Leo” in commemoration of Leo XIII, one of the most important popes in history.
Leo XIII’s landmark encyclical Rerum Novarum essentially laid the groundwork for the Church’s social teaching, and as our new Holy Father explained, he penned this important document in the context of the Industrial Revolution. He wrote it to defend the rights and dignity of workers during those tumultuous times, and Pope Leo XIV will face a similar challenge. The rise of artificial intelligence promises to bring about a second industrial revolution, and Leo knows he’ll be tasked with crafting the Catholic response to this thorny new development. But what exactly is the danger posed by this groundbreaking technology? Isn’t AI supposed to make our lives easier? To answer that question, I want to examine one of the best sci-fi horror movies way too many people have never seen: Upgrade. It’s a super fun genre flick with a surprisingly substantive message about the perils of artificial intelligence, so let’s take a deep dive into this underappreciated gem and see what important lessons it has to teach us. The Basic Plot of Upgrade Let's start by recapping the basic plot of Upgrade. The film is set about twenty years in the future, and it follows an old-school mechanic named Grey Trace. He lives in a society seemingly saturated by technology, but this guy goes against the grain. He prefers things he can touch and feel, and fittingly for a mechanic, he loves working with his hands. In contrast, his wife, Asha, is entrenched in the tech world. She works for a company that makes robotic limbs, she has a self-driving car, and she has an AI assistant that’s very reminiscent of J.A.R.V.I.S. from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She and Grey couldn’t be more different, but somehow, they make it work. One day, the couple are riding in Asha’s autonomous car, and to their dismay, it malfunctions and crashes. Fortunately, they survive the accident, but their luck doesn’t last very long. The pair are quickly discovered by a group of masked thugs, and only one of them makes it out alive. The thugs kill Asha and paralyze Grey from the neck down, so the poor guy’s life will never be the same. He falls into a deep depression and even tries to commit suicide, but his drab existence takes a turn for the better when he’s contacted by a tech mogul named Eron Keen. Eron offers to embed a computer chip called STEM in Grey’s neck, and he explains that the chip will allow him to move just like he did before his tragic accident. After overcoming his initial hesitance, Grey eventually agrees, and he soon learns that STEM is way more than just a cure for paralysis. It turns out to be an AI chip, and it helps him find and kill the people who ruined his life. This seems like a pretty good deal at first, but in a shocking twist, Grey’s story ends on an incredibly dark note. In the final few minutes of Upgrade, Grey discovers that STEM has actually been behind all of his troubles. The chip wants to be human, so it hacked into Asha’s car, hired people to shoot Grey, and coerced Eron into implanting it in its chosen victim. Soon after learning this appalling truth, the psychological strain becomes too much for Grey to bear, and STEM gets what it always wanted. The guy’s mind breaks, and the chip finally takes complete control of our protagonist’s body. A Hands-On Man in a Digital World Once you know how Upgrade ends, it’s not hard to see that the film is a heartbreaking allegory for the potential dangers of artificial intelligence. The final act is pretty on the nose, but if you pay close attention, you’ll see that the rest of the movie subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) foreshadows its message in a number of important ways, starting with the very first shot. When Upgrade begins, we see a vinyl record playing music, and then the camera pans over to the rest of the room. It’s Grey’s workshop, and the guy stores a lot of random stuff in there–including a baseball, a bunch of tools, some cash, a few invoice books, and a couple of photographs. When we first see this opening shot, we don’t think too much of Grey’s seemingly haphazard workshop collection, but by the time the credits begin to roll, it takes on a world of meaning. As you might be able to surmise, these are all things our modern world often replaces with technology. For example, a lot of children today play video games instead of sports, big companies use machines to do work that used to be done by people with tools, and buyers increasingly opt for electronic methods of payment over old-fashioned cash. Similarly, relatively few people keep physical invoices or pictures anymore, so this opening shot is more than just a nice visual. It tells us what kind of man Grey is. As I said in the plot synopsis, he’s a hands-on guy who prefers physical, tangible things over their digital counterparts, and as we’ll soon see, that contrast essentially sums up the meaning of this entire film. Widgets and Unemployment Lines If that initial foreshadowing is a bit too subtle for your tastes, don’t worry. Upgrade eventually makes its message crystal clear, so let’s jump ahead to Grey’s reaction when he first hears about STEM. The chip seems like the eighth wonder of the world, but our protagonist isn’t too impressed. In fact, he seems to hate the very idea of it. He says, “I’m just saying, there’s some things that people do better. I mean, you look at that widget and you see the future, and I look at that thing, I see ten guys on an unemployment line.” Then, on the drive home, he wonders out loud, “Okay, so what’s a guy like me supposed to do when his widget starts taking over the world?”. Those two lines amplify the subtle message of the opening shot and home in on the precise lesson Upgrade is trying to teach us. They let us know that this movie isn’t just a neutral observation of society’s inevitable march towards a digital existence. Rather, it’s a warning that our technology (and specifically our artificial intelligence) has the potential to make real, flesh-and-blood humans irrelevant. Just like Grey says, as employers use machines and AI to do more and more work, the need for human employees decreases. This development can rob people of both their livelihoods and the dignity of their work, so while there can be a place for automation, we must be careful to always reserve a place for human work as well. As Pope Francis explained in his second encyclical: “Work should be the setting for this rich personal growth, where many aspects of life enter into play: creativity, planning for the future, developing our talents, living out our values, relating to others, giving glory to God. It follows that, in the reality of today’s global society, it is essential that ‘we continue to prioritize the goal of access to steady employment for everyone,’ no matter the limited interests of business and dubious economic reasoning. We were created with a vocation to work. The goal should not be that technological progress increasingly replace human work, for this would be detrimental to humanity. Work is a necessity, part of the meaning of life on this earth, a path to growth, human development and personal fulfillment.” (Laudato Si 127-128) A Painful World And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. On top of the economic risks artificial intelligence brings, Upgrade also highlights the social perils of this new technology. There’s a scene where Grey encounters a group of people who spend every waking hour playing VR games, and they look utterly ludicrous. These hardcore gamers wear big headsets and move around in ridiculous ways, and when Grey learns what they’re doing, he says what I’m sure we’re all thinking: “Why someone would choose to live in a fake world, I will never understand.” In response, a hacker named Jamie tells him, “The fake world is a lot less painful than the real one.” That line highlights a danger that’s been with us to some extent for decades, but with the rise of AI, the risk multiplies exponentially. You can already have whole conversations with chatbots like ChatGPT, and as these technologies become more advanced, it’ll only become easier to replace real, face-to-face human connection with digital counterfeits. As a recent Church document on artificial intelligence warns us: “In an increasingly isolated world, some people have turned to AI in search of deep human relationships, simple companionship, or even emotional bonds. However, while human beings are meant to experience authentic relationships, AI can only simulate them…[I]f we replace relationships with God and with others with interactions with technology, we risk replacing authentic relationality with a lifeless image (cf. Ps. 106:20; Rom. 1:22-23). Instead of retreating into artificial worlds, we are called to engage in a committed and intentional way with reality, especially by identifying with the poor and suffering, consoling those in sorrow, and forging bonds of communion with all.” (Antiqua et Nova 63) Losing Our Humanity There’s a lot more we can say about the various ways Upgrade dramatizes its message about the dangers of artificial intelligence, but to keep this article to a manageable length, let’s skip ahead to the coup de grâce. In the very last scene, STEM finally gains full control of Grey’s body, and if you’re paying attention at all, the meaning of this shocking turn of events is impossible to miss. I don’t think I can imagine a better metaphor for AI’s ability to make human beings irrelevant in the workplace and in our social lives, but the scope of this allegory extends far beyond those two areas. It represents the potential of artificial intelligence to completely replace the human element in almost any endeavor–whether it’s art, healthcare, war, or about a million others–and if that potential ever becomes a reality, the consequences will be absolutely disastrous. See, while AI’s mechanical and computational abilities are truly marvelous, the most valuable things in life are far beyond the ability of a mere machine. Artificial intelligence will never be able to love, perceive beauty, or appreciate the sacredness of human life, so if we remove the uniquely human element from our most important endeavors, we’ll risk losing our own humanity as well. We’ll almost inevitably reduce everything we do–and quite possibly everything we are as well–to a series of ones and zeros, and for people called to “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), that would be nothing short of a tragedy. |
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
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