Before the world began to fall apart, I had planned my mid-sem break as an intense and labouring movie marathon. As a known Film Thot, I constantly get chastised for not having seen many ‘classic’ and ‘important’ movies. Going into the break I didn’t exactly want to jump into watching those gritty and harrowing films, I was getting enough of that from the hourly news updates.
I started to desperately seek out some light and fun to fill up my days inside. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs popped up on my list of Netflix recommendations, and gifted me that sublime lightness for an hour and a half. Bill Hader’s voice acting is expressive and emotional, the visuals are gorgeous (and silly) and the impressive comedy comes from a range of techniques. No story threads are dropped and the pace is perfect, with so much squished into the small run time.
Animation tends to slip by general audiences, especially if they don’t bear the name of Pixar or Studio Ghibli. However, the writers and directors of this film, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, have pumped out some really fun animations with heartfelt moments in between hilarious gags. They are probably best known for 21 Jump Street, but the duo also worked on The Lego Movie, the Oscar winning Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse and the upcoming Connected. If you’re in needof fun or some great food puns, give Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs a shot. It’s a much more amusing dystopia than ours.
