Elio (2025)

The NY heatwave forced me to watch a movie right after a 2 hour play with no intermission. In Elio I find a lost Pixar, dogged by right-wing complaints that the studio has lost its luster because it turned woke. Now it literally refuses to take any risk. None of its characters have any real identity, and none of them feel like real people. 

The film touches on parenting, grief, friendship, and sense of belonging - all worthy and complex topics, but it stays so far outside of the safe distance that it is unable to say something meaningful. Conflicts resolve magically, and character development seemingly happens in an instant with no nexus. Supporting characters weave in and out of nowhere like a Californian driver on a highway. The climax has zero emotional weight. 

Pixar needs to recognize that it has long lost the monopolistic hold on visual spectacles in animation - every studio can do that now. Flow literally did it with Blender. It made its best work in Turning Red, Luca, and Soul because it was willing to get messy and personal. None of that is here.