#if movie review

[agentnico]

IF (2024) review

Seems like John Krasinski wanted to apologise to his kids after scarring them for life with A Quiet Place.

Plot: After discovering she can see everyone's imaginary friends, a girl embarks on a magical adventure to reconnect forgotten imaginary friends with their kids.

One must ponder the question WHAT IF John Krasinski decided to make a good movie? Okay, that’s harsh, but in all seriousness IF isn’t a great film. About 30 minutes into watching this, I realized it wasn't going to have the broad, universal appeal of many films in this genre. It's extremely sad in parts, and then shifts to total silliness, then back to sad again. Films can be a lot of things at different times, but it was sort of whiplash here going from silly to sad and back again. As such it begs the question who this movie is intended for? Naturally one would think children as it’s got goofy imaginary characters and a lot of slapstick and stupid jokes, but then there are genuinely depressing and hard-hitting moments where it seems to connect more with adults and their traumatic experiences. The film suffers a huge identity crisis that is its primary downfall.

Also IF is boring. The plot just sort of wanders and things happen that bear no purpose towards progressing the primary narrative. The characters are also poorly written without, dare I say, much imagination, with Cailey Fleming as the little girl protagonist being extremely monotone and lifeless, and for someone who’s supposed to be inspiring and helping these imaginary friends find a new home, she lacks any energy to motivate. I recall she was way more likeable and charismatic as Judith Grimes in The Walking Dead and it’s not like that show is known for great writing, especially in the later seasons, yet there she left much more of an impression than in this film. Ryan Reynolds is enjoying his cool uncle era, yet even he felt really restrained here. Like it is still Reynolds doing his shtick, but it was missing something which I can’t put my finger on. As for the imaginary friends themselves, there are lots of voice cameos featured throughout, but again not many of these creatures actually had that memorable of a personality. Steve Carell is trying his upmost best as the big purple fluff that’s walked out of Monsters Inc., but I was finding him irritating more than anything. Of the more amusing ones there was Richard Jenkins as an Art Teacher and he has the most delightful voice, Bradley Cooper as a glass of ice which I found more entertaining than I should have, and Sam Rockwell as a superhero dog deserves a movie of his own. And again why the hell is Awkwafina in this? She’s voiced characters in like a gazillion animations in the last decade but her voice is so grading.

Usually I would admit to not being the right target audience for a movie that’s billed as for children, however in this case I feel the movie doesn’t really fit for anyone per se. It does seem that John Krasinski works best when there’s less dialogue like with his spectacular horror A Quiet Place, yet here IF seems to miss the mark. I’m certain this is done with good intentions, and maybe I’m being overly cynical here, but IF does not paint a solid case for imaginary friends.

Overall score: 3/10

[cassianandfenrysaremyboyos]

Goncharov coming third in tumblr's top 100 movies of 2023 is so damn funny. Imagine being a film studio exec who spent millions making some of the other 97 movies listed below it only to be beaten by a film that cost exactly zero dollars to make and doesn't exist

[envelopandkissme]

this fucks

[luhvrlis]

[poisondartlesbian]

[sustancy]

[untamed-allure]

[phantomrose96]

The realest part of the Barbie Movie was when Barbie was like "okay but what if this hurts his feelings? what if this makes him sad? :(" after Ken stole her house, stole her car, and stole her agency, because as a woman you still have to second guess everything you do on the assessment of whether it might hurt a man's feelings.

And then that apprehension was proven right one million times over by the entire Conservative Internet Manosphere pissing and shitting and screaming themselves hoarse over Barbie daring to hurt a man's feelings.

[claudeleine]

thanks cliff!!

[pintsofguinnesmakeyoustrong]

absolutely fucking reeling from puss in boots the last wish. my grown ass friends made me see it and it absolutely fucked. it was mad max fury road for kids. it was a horror movie about the fear of death. it was a western about an ageing outlaw trying to regain his youth with the help of his ex fiance and homeless harvey guillen. it was about found family. it was about needing people and asking for help. it had the best depiction of a panic attack i've ever seen in a mainstream film. the villain looked exactly like boris johnson. there was a wicker man reference. it had a kill count higher than most slasher films. it set up shrek 5. they even said fuck.

[opt1gan]

Smbp !!!

[recursivetransformarray]

[spongebobssquarepants]

[backstepping]

ayo edebiri: the movie reviewer we deserve

and her dad also has an account

[villagesong]

people criticising the world-building in bottoms as if that wasn't the entire Point. it's supposed to be stupid and silly. the classes are 10 minutes long, their textbooks were all burnt conveniently, no-one has parents except hazel, nobody gives a fuck if jeff's car burnt down or if they killed a bunch of guys, etc etc. it's supposed to be silly in the way shitty romcoms usually are! and it fucks so