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KLARA AND THE SUN MOVIE REVIEW
Some would say that Taika Waititi has been on a downward slope with his most recent films, Next Goal Wins & Thor: Love and Thunder, but he’s back with his latest film adapting the acclaimed novel Klara and the Sun. Starring Jenna Ortega as the titular Klara, she is an outdated artificial friend living life in a department store full of other artificial friends all pining to be chosen to go home with a human counterpart. The store manager (Natasha Lyonne) doesn’t have high hopes for any of them, but then walks in Josie (Mia Tharia) and her mom Chrissie (Amy Adams). Chrissie dismissive at first with Josie wanting to choose an outdated model, she reluctantly agrees to bring Klara home with them much to Klara’s delight. As Klara acclimates and recalibrates to her new home, she starts to discover that Josie’s life, albeit being a “lifted” person and having everything she would ever need, isn’t entirely fulfilled and has a fractured relationship with her grieving mother. Audiences should expect some twee, but not the overwhelming amount that Waititi is usually known for. It becomes evident that it’s a more evolved film in his filmography and handles a lot of heavy themes with the right amount of humor and grace. Listen as Wright, Spider Mike, and Rhett discuss everything from Ortega’s committed performance to how this may be a step in the right direction for Taika Waititi’s career.
DIRECTED BY: Taika Waititi
STARRING: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, Natasha Lyonne
YOUR REVIEWERS
Wright Sulek (The Other Boss, Trash in the Can, Digital Noise, Highly Suspect Reviews, One Man’s Trash, Screener Squad)
Wright hails from the northern suburbs of Dallas, Texas. His passion for filmmaking brought him to Austin to study and make movies. Since then he’s had his hand in acting, writing, and directing his own short films with numerous like-minded film geeks he’s met along his journey. His newest interest has brought him into the podcasting world. He co-hosted a few different movie related podcasts such as ‘And Now This’ and ‘The Match Cut’. He currently co-hosts with longtime friend, Eric Samaniego, where they talk shop about the grimiest, trashiest, lost gems of movies on their show, ‘Trash in the Can’. Wright also guests and hosts reviews on Screener Squad and Highly Suspect Reviews as well as co-hosts Digital Noise with Chris Cox. As of 2024, Wright has now been inducted into the Austin Film Critics Association as well as co-owns the One of Us network with Chris Cox.
Rhett O’Hara (Highly Suspect Reviews, Screener Squad, Trash in the Can)
Rhett O’Hara has really been looking forward to writing this “about me”. He blames movies for a lot of things in his life. He blames seeing Batman Returns as a child for his interest in all things goth and camp. He blames seeing Akira at far too young of an age for his interest in films that dare to venture into the weirder side of things. He blames Midsommar for never visiting Sweden. Rhett has lived in Austin for a couple of decades, so he can speak fondly of the old days of renting DVDs from I Luv Video (Tetsuo the Iron Man left a mark) and buying peculiar documentaries (The Nomi Song, Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist) from Waterloo Video. Rhett also remembers reading an “about me” that stuck with him a few years back. Time continued and he felt a constant need to share “about me” as well. It wasn’t a voice telling him to do this but something akin to the feeling of knowing that someone is watching you without ever actually seeing that person. Rhett has been anxious and is only just now feeling a sense of relief writing this. He feels selfish though, knowing that this will continue on to the next host; the desire…. the urge…. no….the need to pass along a message that has existed ever since humanity started sharing thoughts in a written form. You must understand that he had no choice in this matter. Rhett is truly sorry for this, but he’s every bit of a pawn as you are now. Rhett is also contractually obligated to let you know that he has been a guest on the hit podcast Trash in the Can.
Michael Riojas (Screener Squad, Highly Suspect Reviews)
The man with the ever-changing nicknames. Born in Austin, Riojas was rocketed to Del Rio, Texas, a literal Smallville. In his youth, he was bitten by a radioactive… okay, look. Mike is not very good at this whole “talking about himself” thing. But he has been so obsessed with comics, video games, and anime since childhood- that if one has to choose between listening to Joe Quesada or Mike over any obscure Spider-Man trivia, they go to him (or, at least Martin Thomas once said so). He is also a big fan of “Ghostbusters” (he even owns his own jumpsuit and two, that’s right, TWO proton packs!), collects toys and video games, and will defend “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” if provoked. He lives in Austin with his beloved Dachshund-Maltese and trusted sidekick, Dean. He can also be heard on RageSelect. He can be found on Twitter and Instagram.
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