Arco, 2025.

Directed by Ugo Bienvenu.
Featuring the voice talents of Juliano Krue Valdi, Romy Fay, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Will Ferrell, Andy Samberg, Flea, Roeg Sutherland, America Ferrera, Zoya Bogomolova, and Wyatt Danieluk.

SYNOPSIS:

In 2075, a girl witnesses a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. He comes from an idyllic far future where time travel is possible. She shelters him and will do whatever it takes to help him return to his time.

With a prologue set far in the future, co-writer/director Ugo Bienvenu (unmistakably inspired by the striking works of Hayao Miyazaki and penning the screenplay with Félix de Givry) depicts the world of Arco as a riff on the earliest civilizations. Climate change has ravaged Earth, where the old ways are new again; there appears to be no more traditional technology or much of anything beyond living within one’s natural environment. However, humanity has learned that homes should be built as circular structures on platforms in the sky, to relieve the surface of various environmental pressures and allow it to heal continuously.

The other twist is that this new civilization has apparently developed or acquired time travel technology, traveling into the past to learn what went wrong and how not to repeat it, and to prevent the planet from spiraling into another devastating crisis. That is the job of the titular Arco’s (voiced in the English-language version by Juliano Krue Valdi) family (with parents voiced by Roeg Sutherland and America Ferrera in the English-language version), as the 10-year-old boy is considered too young to join them on these time-traveling expeditions to amass knowledge that has been depleted or lost.

Naturally, this leaves Arco feeling frustrated and distant from his family, even though they are generally around quite a bit to provide for him. Arco doesn’t have the patience to wait until he comes of time-traveling age, though, stealing his sister’s flying cloak (they are brightly colored, resembling rainbows), soaring his way unintentionally until the year 2075, when climate change is seemingly at its most dangerous and when robots have taken over the majority of the workforce.

While on the run from a trio of comedic relief twins looking to capture him or the diamond that gives the cloak the ability to time travel (play by the amusing trifecta of Will Ferrell, Flea, and Andy Samberg in the English-language version, with their blending together and sounding alike as they bumble their way through their objective), Arco befriends the similarly aged Iris (voiced in the English-language version by Romy Fay) who is, unsurprisingly, fascinated by his eccentric attire but also curious about him and why he is asking what year it is.

Considering that Iris’ parents (voice in the English-language version by Mark Ruffalo and producer Natalie Portman) are often working in what’s left of the city, and only around via holographic projections through the technology of robot caretaker Mikki (also voiced by a combination of Mark Ruffalo and Natalie Portman), it’s tantalizing to be around another human. Even at school, there are no teachers; robots give lectures through a virtual reality component. And although one student appears to be interested in her, Iris generally comes across as isolated and lonely in a world where outdoor play is minimal, given the nonstop storms and wildfires terrorizing the planet.

Not only is Iris determined to help Arco find the diamond and the methods to fly back to his time correctly, but she also seems to want to join him to get away from this depressing state of near-future life and constant damage being done to the Earth. A future with almost nothing in the way of modern technology sounds like a reprieve. Perhaps that’s part of what the filmmakers are saying: in a world where AI threatens to take over everything and do more harm than good with no foreseeable way of, at the very least, reducing the damages wrought by climate change, maybe society has to circle back around to a somewhat ancient civilization lifestyle. In a more common juxtaposition, she also seems jealous that he gets to be in his parents’ presence as much as he does, whereas he is mostly frustrated that they believe he isn’t ready to time-travel with them.

Although there is much to ponder about Arco‘s timely and imaginative messaging, which perhaps most importantly chooses optimism and hope, this is also a visually resplendent, colorful, humorous tale of bonding and trial and error. The presence of Will Ferrell alone should be enough to tell parents this is not all doom and gloom, even if the mature themes are welcome and should have children curious about current critical events.

Even at 88 minutes, it slightly drags in the back half until reaching an emotional wallop of an ending that would have been more effective if the rest of the film were more interested in the sci-fi dynamics than solely these two kids hanging out and avoiding a trio of comic relief dopes. Arco is still moving and lightweight fun, though, even if it doesn’t capitalize on all its wondrously creative ideas.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist

“Predator” and I got off on the wrong foot. I’m not talking about the new movie, but rather the 1987 original, and by extension the whole franchise. I rented the film hoping to enjoy some action-movie interaction between two future governors: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. Unfortunately, there was little to no interaction between the two, and Ventura’s character got picked off by the Predator earlier than I would have liked. I spent the rest of the movie sulking, and never really became a fan of the series.

Flash forward to 2025. I wasn’t really looking forward to “Predator: Badlands” in and of itself, but after the dismal October we just had at the domestic box office, I’ll take a hit wherever I can get it. Which is probably why I liked the movie as much as I did. There’s not a lot for me here, but I needed to get excited about “something,” so the film’s greatest strength may be its good timing.

The film follows Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), an aspiring young Predator (or “Yautja”) on the faraway planet of Yautja Prime. Dek desperately wants to go on a successful hunt to earn the approval of his father Njohrr (Reuben De Jong), as well as… living privileges, because Yautjas that don’t complete successful hunts are put to death. Njohrr wants relative runt Dek put down anyway, but he flees to the planet Genna, home to the most high-value trophy in the known universe, the Kalisk. He vows to not return without killing the Kalisk for himself.

Dek doesn’t fare well on the hostile Genna, but an opportunity presents itself in the form of Thia (Elle Fanning), a synthetic human that had been part of a party trying to find and exploit the Kalisk for their corporate overlords (I won’t say which corporation, but it’s a big deal). The Kalisk overpowered Thia’s team, leaving her as the sole survivor, and she’s worse for wear, missing the entire lower half of her body. She and Dek make a deal: he’ll help her get her body back and help her reunite with her also-damaged “sister” Tessa (also Fanning) and she’ll help him take down the Kalisk.

Dek and Thia start off as uneasy allies, but as they overcome obstacles together, their bond turns into friendship. All this despite Thia being half of a smart-alecky robot and Dek coming from a race that forbids emotions. Which presents kind of a huge problem for me, in that neither character is from a race that I feel is worth preserving. Thia is so artificial that there’s literally another of her, and even though we ultimately see that there’s some good in Dek, sorry, the universe would probably be better off without kill-obsessed Predators.

I know I’m supposed to like “Predator: Badlands” because of the way the alien and the robot learn what it means to be human. Honestly, I was rolling my eyes at those parts. I like the movie because Thia’s jokes were hitting for me and I liked the action. The upside of all the characters being either robots or aliens is that the film can be as violent as it wants and still get a PG-13 rating as long as all the gore is in the form of either sparks or slime. “Predator: Badlands” is fine as an action movie for people who could use a half-decent action movie, but just as with Thia’s body, don’t expect it to be more than “half” decent.

Grade: B-

By the way, I later found another movie from 1987 with both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura. In this one, their characters do interact. They even go head-to-head with one another in a fight, where one presumably kills the other. That movie is called “The Running Man.” And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a new version of that property coming out Friday.

“Predator: Badlands” is rated PG-13 for sequences of strong sci-fi violence. Its running time is 107 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at rrg251@nyu.edu.

“Wow, the main character sure looks like Rafal from Orb: On the Movement of the Earth,” I thought during 100 Meters‘ opening few minutes, where young protagonist Togashi tutors his classmate Komiya in sprinting. Turns out that the movie, directed by ON-GAKU: Our Sound‘s Kenji Iwaisawa, is based on a manga by Orb‘s Uoto. Upon initial publication in 2018, 100 Meters‘ five-volume manga was Uoto‘s big break into publishing, and follows the stories of two athletes from elementary school all the way to their professional careers in their mid-twenties. It’s a far cry from Orb‘s meticulously researched, dark, and dramatic historical drama. There’s an intensity to 100 Meters and its characters that do feel of a piece with Orb‘s, however, and they help to make this a magnetic film, throughout which I was transfixed.

Undoubtedly, the best sports anime film of the past few years is Takehiko Inoue‘s The First Slam Dunk, whose remarkable basketball game was visualized using advanced rotoscoping techniques. Rotoscoping can be divisive, especially amongst anime fans – just look at the incredibly mixed reaction to 2013’s Flowers of Evil, but there’s no argument with The First Slam Dunk – that movie utilized its techniques to maximal success. 100 Meter’s Iwaisawa is no stranger to the use of rotoscoping – his prior work, ON-GAKU, was a rotoscoped film based on his own self-published manga, and animated by amateurs. Iwaisawa took what worked with that film, and with a larger, professional team, applies it magnificently to the intensely competitive world of professional track and field.

There’s a combination of anime stylization and grounded, naturalistic look to the way that characters move in 100 Meters that manages to avoid that uncanny valley effect that sometimes plagues rotoscoped animation. In particular, there’s a profound sense of weight, of sheer muscle-shredding, teeth-grinding effort during the running scenes. They bring to mind Takeshi Koike‘s Animatrix short World Record, as the runners almost transcend reality for a scant few seconds as they chase practically superhuman record times.

If there’s a theme to the film, it’s “why do you run?”, and that answer is very different for each of the characters, and sometimes, when they lose sight of that, they fail. While some characters view each other as bitter rivals, in the end, what they are running against is themselves. I particularly liked older runner Zaitsu, who gives a speech to the younger pupils at school, giving hilariously awful, completely nihilistic advice, to the teachers’ horror. The thing is, it actually helps deuteragonist Komiya overcome his deep-seated anxieties, and drives him to succeed, though perhaps not in the healthiest of ways…

We learn very little about our characters’ lives outside of their love for the track. Protagonist Togashi is a quietly intense lad who is mindful of others, initially confident in his own abilities, and is wary of the fame he achieves relatively early in life. We see him struggle through crises of confidence, including one particularly brutal scene where he breaks down and cries in front of a pair of utterly bemused kids, great globs of tears and snot dripping onto the concrete beneath him. We’re left in no doubt about the meaning that running brings to his life, and the possibility that his future may be stolen from him by an injury is heartbreaking.

Komiya’s more of a mystery, a haunted-looking lad more in the vein of Death Note‘s L, with his dark eye shadows and awkward personality. As the story leaps across years, the characters change and grow physically, and it can be a little hard to track who is who. On more than one occasion, I mixed up one character for another for several scenes before I was able to confidently identify them accurately. I wonder if the source material had to be significantly edited to fit five entire volumes into the space of a single movie? Sadly, the manga is currently unavailable legally in English, so I can’t check.

By far the most impressive scene comes just over halfway through, at a rain-drenched athletic competition final. Comprised of a single long take filmed in live action, but meticulously painted over frame by frame, backgrounds and all, it’s a spine-tingling experience, full of motion, with a certain roughness, and brutal physicality to it. Togashi, standing alone in disbelief at the end, as his silhouette gradually disappears into the pouring rain, is a potent image. I shudder to think of the insane amount of work it must have taken to complete this scene.

The detailed backgrounds have the appearance of oil paintings, all-natural, almost photorealistic colors. Other, slow-motion shots look more pastel-like, and certain clever scene transitions, such as time-skips during running, are remarkable. The overall atmosphere is significantly enhanced by an excellent soundtrack, and I especially enjoyed the urgent, upbeat ending song Rashisa by Official HiGE DANdism, which suits the movie’s tone and subject matter perfectly.

My favorite character is Kaido, who we meet later in the movie as an adult athlete. His mirror shades never come off, and his full face beard makes him look a lot older than his fellow competitors. His characterization is immeasurably enhanced by voice actor Kenjirō Tsuda, whom Orb fans will recognize as the voice of the terrifying inquisitor Nowak. His line delivery via low-pitched drawl suits Kaido perfectly, and I love the role he plays in the story.

At first glance, 100 Meters‘ seemingly ambiguous ending may seem a little disappointing to viewers keen to learn which of the main characters ultimately “wins”, but that’s to miss the point of this story. As they each contend with their own motivations and those of their rivals, the ultimate answer to why they run is not to win, but “for us to give our absolute all, we need nothing else.” It’s a profound examination of the athlete’s psyche, and a refutation of the constant drive to win at all costs, while grinding opponents into the dust. That kind of mindset is shown to be harmful and unhealthy. Yes, winning is great, but what more can be asked of a person than to do the absolute best they can? Director Iwaisama clearly expended a great deal of time and effort to make this excellent film, and he should feel proud of achieving his best work so far.