It’s quite the trick to tell a story that is both anti-gun and supportive of stand-your-ground doctrine. I’m almost positive director Brad Bird was going for only one half of that equation in “The Iron Giant” (1999), but I’m going to stand my ground, too. Aside from the deep-thinky pacifist stuff, this stylish piece of children’s animation is the classic story of the (mostly) gentle giant who is (mostly) misunderstood by the townsfolk, government, etc. Except for the kid who befriends him, of course. It all gets magnified through a Cold War paranoia lens and leads to a dramatic climax.
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I don’t know enough about schizophrenia to know whether “Fear of Rain” (2021) is portraying or exploiting the condition, but as a film, it’s quite compelling. It follows a path laid out by “Conspiracy Theory,” the 1997 gem with Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts that illustrated the idea, “just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get you.” This time we’re in Young Adult Dramaville as a high school girl struggles to filter reality through multiple demons: teen angst and a crowd of voices inside her head. Someone’s in danger, but can she – and we – figure out who?
There’s a comfort-food satisfaction about a rom-com – if the actors in it are decent enough. Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. are decent enough, and “New in Town” (2009) is like a sweet bowl of tapioca. Supporting cast Siobhan Fallon Hogan and J.K. Simmons are more than decent enough and what is basically an empty-calories, color-by-numbers story (career-minded female executive is fish out of water at rural Minnesota food processing plant, what with the townsfolk’s Flyover Country ways and all, but everybody learns a little something about themselves, yada, yada, yada). Like scrapbooking and other hobbies, it’s time well wasted.
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