The screening for “The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature” started 45 minutes late. This tardiness is worth mentioning. To dangle a film in front of anyone is to create a frustrated viewer, antsy and agitated. At a certain point I was ready to simply pack up my belongings and go home. “I tried to watch ‘The Nut Job 2'”, I told myself, “but the universe wouldn’t let me.” An act of divine intervention.
Then, just as I was calling it quits, animated images appeared on the screen. The squirrels wanted to be seen. And they were! In spite of the projection missteps, and my initial impatience, “The Job 2: Nutty by Nature” kinda works. In fact, it didn’t take long for this fleet-footed sequel, spry and charming, to win me over.
Writer-director Cal Brunker (“Escape from Planet Earth”) picks up where the first film left off. Upon the closing of a local nut shop, the park animals of Oakton City take up new residence in the basement of the dilapidated store. Inside are enough nuts to last a lifetime. Culinary paradise.
The creatures are led by Surly (voiced by Will Arnett), a purple squirrel who seems to have just learned sarcasm and is intent on employing it. For the opening minutes, all is well in Oakton. At last everyone has enough food. Perhaps more than enough. Then tragedy strikes.
The nut shop blows up. No one was minding the boiler. The mistake leads to disarray. Without a home, the animals retreat back to nature. But even the park is not safe anymore. The Mayor (Bobby Moynihan) has a plan to turn the park into profit: “the greatest amusement park ever,” he says under his diabolical laugh.
There is no name for The Mayor. This is, in part, one of the issues with Brunker’s screenwriting. He is only evil, a symbol of rampant capitalism and greed. Shaped liked an outsized oval, The Mayor putzes around with his Veruca Salt-y daughter, Heather (Isabella Moner, “Transformers: The Last Knight”). Together they scream at everyone in sight.
It’s true that in children’s fare, but also in most movies, there needs to be an easily definable antagonist. Someone (or something) to test the limits and abilities of our hero. By that metric, The Mayor succeeds. (It just would’ve been more dynamic for the character to be fleshed-out, and his motivations understood.) His sinister politicking — in which he apparently operates as some kind of mayoral dictator — causes the animals to fight back.
If the original “Nut Job” was about the emergence of a single hero, the sequel is about a collective banding together to combat the powers that be. This is the film’s greatest strength. Brunker insists on teamwork within the script. Surly needs help from Precious (Maya Rudolph), a pug with some toughness. And Mr. Feng (Jackie Chan), the no-nonsense leader of the street mouse gang (they don’t like to be called “cute”). And Andie (Katherine Heigl), a wise red squirrel who wants the rest of the animals to embrace their roots. The list of teammates goes on.
While the crooked Mayor hopes to change the landscape of Oakton, the animals are formidable opponents. Brunker makes some not so subtle (but still noble) comments on the rise of gentrification here. The park is theirs. It’s where they’re from and it’s where they belong. No egotistical leader will take it away.
It’s because of subtext like this that I feel inclined to support “The Nut Job 2.” Its politics are humanitarian. It’s pro-environment, pro-animal life, and anti-consumerism. In short: Democrats will love it, Republicans will want to love it, but won’t, and everyone else will probably just be pleased to see quick-witted talking squirrels.
And yet, after all, this is a children’s movie. Left, right, and center is not on their minds. There was something encouraging about watching grade schoolers in my screening respond so rapturously to the movie. They laughed at The Mayor’s mendaciousness, not with it. There was silence in a couple of the film’s more moving moments in which animals are fearing for their life. Kids are kids, but they’re not unobservant spectators. There’s a mindfulness to both the film and its prospective audience that gives some hope.
Personally, the question for myself remains: Did I like “The Nut Job 2: Nutty by Nature” because my critical faculties were decimated prior to entry, or were my critical faculties decimated by “The Nut Job 2”? I don’t know. All I remember is my smile walking out of the theater.
Who Are All These People In 'BoJack Horseman'? (Photos)
While much of the Netflix spotlight has been dominated by "House of Cards" and "Making a Murderer," "Bojack Horseman" has become one of the most surprising hits of the streaming era. On the surface, it's an absurdist parody of Hollywood and showbiz politics, where human and furries live, work and have sex with each other. But it has also become an uncomfortably realistic depiction of depression and self-destructive behavior, told through the eyes of a millionaire star who doesn't know what would make him happy.
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That star is the titular BoJack Horseman, once the star of an awful but wildly popular sitcom called "Horsin' Around." Since his hey (or hay?) day passed, BoJack has jumped from vice to vice, including sleeping with the actress who played his daughter. He's desperately searching for something that will make him feel fulfilled, but nothing sticks. All the while, he destroys what few relationships he has with his behavior.
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In Season 1, BoJack releases a memoir that reveals the dark side his fans haven't seen. The book earns him adulation, but BoJack still isn't satisfied because the public isn't embracing the image he wants them to have. In Season 2, he lands a role as the champion racehorse Secretariat, but due to his unreliable nature and his inability to do dramatic acting thanks to years of sitcom work, most of BoJack's work is replaced with a CGI version of himself.
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Nonetheless, critics are fooled into thinking the computerized BoJack's acting is done by the real thing. In Season 3, BoJack becomes a top contender at the Oscars, but struggles to deal with the awards circuit as his downward spiral continues.
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Opposite BoJack is Mr. Peanutbutter, a golden retriever who got famous by doing a sitcom that was a blatant ripoff of "Horsin' Around." In Season 1, it seems like Mr. PB has everything Bojack doesn't. He's happy, loved by all, and has a positive outlook on life. But in Season 2, the dog's glowing image that BoJack so bitterly resents gets chipped away.
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As BoJack remains stuck in depression despite a huge career rebound, Mr. PB tries to stay positive as he falls into bankruptcy after following one stupid business idea after another. Those who live with him on a day-to-day basis find his happy-go-lucky personality grating and insensitive, and his marriage is going through a tough period.
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Mr. Peanutbutter's wife is Diane Nguyen, a human writer who ghostwrites BoJack's memoir. She is by far the most patient and mature character, which allows her to put up with BoJack's irascible attitude and PB's ditzy behavior. Still, she struggles to turn her desires for social activism into meaningful good.
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While she truly loves Mr. Peanutbutter, Diane spends Season 2 feeling troubled that her marriage is locking her into a cycle of routine that is preventing her from doing something meaningful with her life. Mr. PB, being a happy dopey dog, doesn't seem to get this, causing them to spend some time apart, until they realize that whatever problems they may have they are still happiest when they are together.
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While Diane is a friendly, gentle figure in BoJack's life, his ex-girlfriend/agent Princess Carolyn is a tough kitty. She puts her entire life into her work and has become one of the hardest working agents in Hollywoo, but wonders if there's more to life outside the office that she's missing. This leads her to impulsively start relationships that never work out.
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Take for example, her decision to finally leave her agency and start one of her own with the rabbit Rutabaga Rabbinowitz. In the Season 2 finale, Carolyn discovers that the rabbit had lied to her about divorcing his wife, and that he had been using her as a disposable interest and a tool to advance his own career. Furious, Carolyn fires Rutabaga on the spot, leading into Season 3 as she tries to run an entire talent agency on her own.
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Finally, there's Todd Chavez, BoJack's slacker roommate. Despite being a lazy bum, he proves to have many talents over the course of the series, including entrepreneurial skills, songwriting and TV production. Unfortunately, every cool idea he comes up with always ends in disaster, often due to his sudden bouts of stupidity. As the series goes on, he begins to wonder if he really is as worthless as the world tells him he is.
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While Carolyn, Diane and even Mr. Peanutbutter have reached a breaking point with BoJack and called him out for being a colossal jerk, Todd remains his closest friend. He puts up with BoJack's insults and constant demands to "clean up your s--t," and deep down BoJack knows that he can't bear hanging around his mansion without him. Will BoJack finally cause Todd to hit his breaking point in Season 3?
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Netflix’s adult animated sitcom features a horse person and a dog person. It also features one of TV’s most realistic takes on depression
While much of the Netflix spotlight has been dominated by "House of Cards" and "Making a Murderer," "Bojack Horseman" has become one of the most surprising hits of the streaming era. On the surface, it's an absurdist parody of Hollywood and showbiz politics, where human and furries live, work and have sex with each other. But it has also become an uncomfortably realistic depiction of depression and self-destructive behavior, told through the eyes of a millionaire star who doesn't know what would make him happy.