Rated Greg’s Top 5 Fictional Pets
- Baxter (Anchorman)
- Okja (Okja)
- Marcel (Friends)
- Gizmo (Gremlins)
- Buck (Married with Children)
Honorable Mentions: Babe, Brian, Hooch, Jinxy Cat, Santa’s Little Helper
Beasts of the Southern Wild meets an R-Rated E.T. No film has moved me in 2017 as much as this beautiful story about a little girl and her “superpig.” That might sound ridiculous, but some movies you just have to take a leap of faith and try not to judge a book by it’s cover. When I first pulled up Okja on Netflix I was greeted with the image above and had I not know anything else about it I probably wouldn’t have clicked play. This is for kids, right?*
Fortunately I was already aware that this film was on the horizon and knew better. I knew this because of the players involved and their propensity to always pick really interesting projects. Jake Gyllenhaal (still leading the league in WAR) in possibly his weirdest character yet. Tilda Swinton playing a modern day Cruella de Vil. Paul Dano getting to play an alpha for once. All directed by South Korea’s Bong Joon-ho, who the Ringer recently speculated could be the new Spielberg (That’s So Ringer). And not even included in that list is the main character and best part of the film, Mija, played by 13-year-old Seo-Hyun Ahn. She’s truly a force of nature.
Anyways, Okja is good. It’s really, REALLY good. It’s a perfect blend of quirkiness, action, legitimate emotion, and genuine LOL’s all in sync within exceptional framing. It’s also a love story in its purest form with some very strong sentiments towards corporate greed and animal rights. Okja replaces Beasts of No Nation as the best Netflix Original Movie to date. Grade: A-
*It’s not. I repeat, this film is NOT for children. If you did happen to watch this with a toddler, I have a feeling you would be forced to turn it off halfway through, much like my grandmother dragged my two siblings and me out of the theater in the middle of Who Framed Roger Rabbit way back when.
Rated Greg 