The Wild Robot

"If I Could Talk to the Animals"

or

"What Do You See When You Look at Him?" 

"Crushing Responsibility"

 

Watching movies is always subjective. Your favorite movie may be someone else's bane (I don't plan or participate in "Movie Nights"). And one becomes selective. I'm particularly selective when it comes to animated features—I grew up watching Disney and Looney Tunes (the best!) and the output of Hanna-Barbera (limited animation and derivative plots), but also recognized those elements that were excellent where others left a lot to be desired—the Jay Ward output had really limited animation but the writing was clever and often brilliant). 

I'll hold off watching the Troll movies, or the Sing! movies or anything else that looks like it might push my negative buttons (the one that goes "Eject" for example) because I'm older in years and I'm at the point where I don't want to waste the fleeting hours I have left to me.*

 

So, yeah, I'm picky, as are you. I will not MISS a new Pixar Studios release and SEE it in a theater—I don't care how big your flat-screen is, it can't do justice to Coco—and I will usually see a new Disney feature because the early Pixar brain-trust is involved with those. With everything else, I'm choosy.

The Wild Robot was an easy "go". Based on Peter Brown's children's book, it tells the story of a utility robot, a model of the Rozzum series (this one's #7134 and voiced by Lupita Nyong'o, who is both precise and subtle), who, after a freighter capsizes in a typhoon, is washed up on an uninhabited island, more or less intact, and switched on accidentally by curious otters and proceeds to perform its duties—which is to help, solve a problem, and complete a task. Simple. Like a robot! But a robot in a forest does not compute. It's digital and everything on the island is so...organic! The animal-life is scared of this chrome trespasser and they just want to run and hide, despite the Rozzum's constant inquiries "Do you need...assistance?"

But, if there's anything about the Rozzum, is that it can learn—emulating a crab climbing a cliff saved it from being smashed by a large wave—and so, it sits and goes into "Learning Mode" until it is able to decipher the squeaks and grunts and chirps the animals make and understand it as communication tools, and the first thing they ask is "Are you here to kill us?" "Negative," it replies, but seeing the futility of trying to help these animals, Rozz decides to activate its homing retrieval beacon, but it attacked by the bear, Thorn (Mark Hamill), who breaks it. No retrieval, no "phone home."

Speaking of breaking, Rozzum's initial clumsiness leads to disasters several minor instances and one major familial one. It falls into a nest, destroying the family, with the exception of one egg. As the rest of the family is beyond repair, "Roz" takes the one egg and, seeing as there's a life-form inside, decides to keep it safe—a herculean task as there's a hungry fox named Fink (Pedro Pascal), who just happens to be peckish for an omelette. After the two come to a self-beneficial truce, Fink, in his own conniving way, helps Rozzum to understand what it is she is protecting, and once the egg has hatched a gosling—that imprints itself on Roz—instructs Roz on what goslings (and some foxes) can eat.

Now, there's already a lot of story there, and this Wild Robot is made up of a lot of recycled material: the "fish-out-of-water" trope, the Chuck Jones cartoon "8-Ball Bunny" ("Oooo! I'm dyyyyyin'!"), E.T.:the Extra-terrestrial, Wall•E, Noah's Ark—that will come later—and several other bits and pieces snatched from other media and cultures. But, there's another one that it takes a final page from and that's Bambi—like that movie, The Wild Robot acknowledges death and that "nature is red in tooth and claw." There is a pecking order on this little island and the small things get eaten by larger things and there is the risk that a character you might like won't last too long.

This makes the care of the newly-hatched gosling—Rozzum labels it "Brightbill" (played by Boone Storm and Kit Connor, at different stages of development)—that much more imperative. Roz has no idea how to raise a gosling and complete the task, so Fink suggests a neighbor opossum named Pinktail (Catherine O'Hara), who has plenty of off-spring, thank you, for some mothering advice. This comes down to three skill-sets: keeping the gosling fed, teaching it how to swim, and teaching it how to fly before the geese on the island make their winter migration off the island.

Food's not a problem, Fink is good at finding food—especially food that Brightbill can't eat (so, more for Fink) and Roz builds a shelter out of stones to make an enclosure to ensure its charge's safety. Teaching it to swim and teaching it to fly are other matters in terms of complexity. Oh, Roz can pull up facts on buoyancy rates and aerodynamics, but it's not the same. This little runt is going to need some extra-mentoring if it is ever going to leave the nest that Roz has constructed.

All this with the added story-rule that there are predators and there are prey and Brightbill is a tasty little morsel of a nugget. And as one gets to meet other creatures, like Matt Berry's grumpy beaver, Ving Rhames' falcon, or Bill Nighy's old goose, you realize that not every living thing on the island gets along. As someone says in Nature, "kindness is not a survival skill." All Roz wants to do is complete the task, as is its protocol. But, motherhood is just not in the programming.

So, there's a lot of basics familiar from other sources, but, the trick is trying to do it better and make it unique despite the provenance. That is something The Wild Robot does very well, taking the story places that the others hadn't and giving you fresh insights, while also charming the heck out of you. That seems to be the Dreamworks Animation trick—taking familiar things but making them seem bright and shiny again. They do that in the story...and in the artistic side of things, as well.

Where the Pixar pixelators seem to have the goal of making things look as photo-realistic as possible, Dreamworks goes another direction. I noticed it with their Puss-in-Boots: The Last Wish, a push against the reality of things and, instead, making things more impressionistic. It might be that it helps reduce the render-time of complicated images, but one can safely say that the complexity of images isn't sacrificed—there's a scene with a tree that explodes into a kaleidoscope of butterflies that is simply breath-taking to behold. The result, especially in the animation, is to give it a story-telling schmere that only increases the wonderment of what you're watching.

That is some amazing creativity on display, and between that and the directions that the story takes (and despite a jolting action-oriented third act), The Wild Robot is one of those great animation products that deserve to be considered a classic, going beyond its programming to become something very special.

 

It's the easiest "go/no go" decision you could make at the movies this year.

* I just finished reading "Opposable Thumbs," a not-bad book by Matt Singer about the history of "Siskel & Ebert at the Movies" in all its incarnations, and as much as those guys LOVED movies and LOVED reviewing movies, they got to a point where they said "if you think the movie's garbage, get up and leave! Life is too short and too precious to waste."

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Third World War

or

"A Colonialist in Chains...Now I Have Seen Everything"

 

When last we left (and, I'm sure, regretfully) Wakanda, they were ending their fearful (if understandable) isolation and establishing an outreach program into the wider world, no longer hiding in plain sight, sharing their culture, their knowledge, but not their wonder-mineral vibranium. The world is not ready for that (although they continue to try to possess "by any means necessary").

 

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever begins with the acknowledgment that its MVP, Chadwick Boseman, who has played "The Black Panther" in all the previous Marvel movies, is dead. Much tribute is made, deservedly, but the most important thing the movie does right off the bat is to say that the actor (and the character) are irreplaceable, too irreplaceable to even try. In a movie industry where actors are replaced with the drop of a salary demand or a controversial tweet (and a genre that is still trying to come to grips with multiple actors playing a single character), this is refreshingly noble. And rare. Already, the movie re-establishes that air the original had of being a labor of love rather than a labor of commerce. 

King T'Challa, the former Black Panther, protector of Wakanda, has died of an unspecified disease. The country mourns the loss, but none more than T'Challa's sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), princess and technological whiz-kid, who only knows that for all her brilliance and skills, she could not save her beloved brother. Now the kingdom is ruled by Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett) with no protector, no Black Panther, but the more-than-capable army of the Dora Milaje, led by General Okoye (Danai Gurira). She's going to need them. At a United Nations meeting, she is pressed by the U.S. (Hey, Richard Schiff's in the Marvel Universe!) and France to share Wakanda's resource of vibranium, which she steadfastly refuses.

She gives them something else, instead. A big lesson in "Don't Mess With Me." The entrance opens and Okoye and her troop bring in some French soldiers who had tried (unsuccessfully, of course) to steal some vibranium. Ramonda lays down the law. Nobody is going to get the stuff for its potential for weaponry. If anybody tries it...well, they better not. Wakanda's memory is also forever.

They're not alone in that. The U.S. is trying to get their own vibranium deposited deep in the Atlantic Ocean, with a new device that detects the stuff. But, before any extraction can be done, there's an attack on the ship where the crew inexplicably jump like lemmings into the sea, impelled by a strange sonic attack of an unknown origin, and a helicopter attempting to escape is grabbed and thrown to a catastrophic end into the sea. Was it Wakanda? How? Even Wakanda doesn't know.

The answer comes from the sea. While Ramonda and Shuri are holding a private ritual ending their mourning by burning their ceremonial white robes, they are approached by a human rising from the water with wings on his feels and fire in his eyes. He is K'uk'ulkan or Prince Namor (Tenoch Huerta) of the undersea kingdom of Talokan and he loves what they've done with the place (the water is so clean! And the air is so fresh!), but not so much in his neck of the ocean, so he warns them. His people have stopped another attempt to take vibranium—this time from the ocean floor with a device that is specifically designed to detect it. As it is Wakanda's responsibility to police the mining of the stuff, they'd better get a handle on it, especially in his territory of the sea. If they can't, he'll see to it personally and with less restraint. His first aim is to find the person who created that vibranium detector and if Wakanda doesn't hand them over to him, he's not willing to wait and he'll take action against the people responsible and Wakanda, as well.

Okoye and Shuri contact their "favorite colonialist" Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), who knows who made that vibranium detector. She is MIT student Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), who apparently has the "McGyver"-like ability to make a flux capacitor out of scraps taken from your recycle bin. Not only did she make that detector, but she's working on her own "Iron Man" suit because...well, MIT must have a liberal extracurricular activity program. But lousy security. When the two Wakandans contact Riri, they must first get by a raid by the FBI and then the Talokans, who take Shuri and Riri captive.

Queen Ramonda is furious with this. She demotes Okoye of her rank and then sends for Nakia (Lupita Nyong'o), former Dora Milaje and War Dog spy to infiltrate Talokan and rescue the two scientific geniuses who can't seem to rescue themselves.

Well, it just gets more complicated from there. Ultimately it turns into a war between third world countries, tribe against tribe, while both should be looking at the real threat, which is the supposedly industrialized nations (although they pale when compared to Wakanda) trying to get their empirical mitts on the resource the two warring factions share. It seems to be a case of not keeping your eye on the vibranium ball, but that's what happens when things get personal. You lose the big picture when you're the target of the attack.

But, as frustrating as that is—and aren't all wars fundamentally frustrating?—one must acknowledge the complications. Coogler displayed in the first Black Panther a penchant for world-building that went beyond decor and here, he does the same sort of thing for the Talokans (in a way that seemed to escape the DC Aquaman movie), creating a murkier version with more natural materials, and enough back-story to create the grudges necessary to sell the thing.

But, more than that, this movie is a bit of a miracle in that, even if it isn't as artistically successful as the first Black Panther movie, it is successful enough without its lynch-pin title character present (and its charismatic lead actor irretrievably absent) and, instead, depends on the superb supporting cast that enriched its predecessor. Imagine a Batman movie without Batman. Nope. Not gonna happen. But, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is engaging even without a Black Panther character for the majority of its running time (consider that a SPOILER alert). I can't imagine another film franchise that would be able to pull that off and get away with it, let alone excel in its own way. 

As these super-hero movies start to merge together and become indistinguishable from one another, that is a remarkable accomplishment.

Wakanda forever!

 

 Prince Namor ("The Sub-mariner") has been around since 1939

 

The 355

It's a Man's World—God Help Us (If She's Listening)

or

"We're Spies, Asshole!"

 

The reviews have not been kind to The 355, and the critics have teamed up around it like a circular firing squad. "Generic" says The Guardian. The L.A. Times says it "feels familiar and is a bit tired." The (London) Times calls it "lazy" and "box-ticking." Christy Lemire of Ebert.com criticized it for the clothes.*

 

Because it stars nice looking women and they should have been dressed more fashionably.

 

The Wikipedia article on it says Rotten Tomatoes reports it has an aggregate score of 4.4/10 (so it's the squishy green emoji). Cinemascore says audiences give it a B+ (which is better than average). I use that to illustrate the summary judgment despite the fact I hate aggregate web-sites, believing that metrics is the down-fall of Society, and that such sites do not promote critical thinking, and individuality. I think they work against people seeing movies, rather than promoting it. I give aggregate sites an "F" and don't visit them so their ads will get one less "little tingle." And one less reason for being.**

 

Add to that, I live on the west coast of the United States, but not in Los Angeles and certainly not in New York (it being on the east coast), so I don't entirely subscribe to the trope that "January is where movies go to die," seeing as I see a lot of good movies released outside of the Academy nominating window here. And I've seen my share of spy movies, action movies, and thrillers. The tendency for them to go over the the top now has only increased with the superhero genre—my eyes still hurt from the rolling they did watching Black Widow running up some scaffolding falling in space. It's tough to find a tough spy thriller anyone, or a smart one, or even a believable one, so many have come before spoiling the barrel.

 

But, the spy genre does teach one lesson: trust no one. The 355 extends that to movie critics.

Not that the film is without flaws. When an important member of a operative team is reported killed and the guy in charge says "I identified the body myself," I muttered "Well, I haven't seen the body..." and the exact nature of the computer drive—the McGuffin of the story—isn't made sufficiently clear other than it can hack into anything and "start World War III" and "set the world on fire" and people ooh and ahh over its elegance and sophistication. Until you drop it in the sink, that is. And just when I was thinking of calling this piece Everything Bond Does But in Heels" someone has to use 007's name in vain: "James Bond always ends up alone." (No, he doesn't—more times than not, he ends up in a boat!).

But, what sets this one apart is an attitude of viciousness, physical and psychological. Most spy-action movies are exercises for (what Gustav Hasford in "The Short-Timers" called) "the phony tough and the crazy brave"—fan-boys who've never had their noses broken. It looks good with all the kick-boxing moves and quick editing, but it's all ballet, essentially, designed that the feints look close, but couldn't knock a cigar out of a mouth. This one has plenty of that, although the fights are kept to a lesser amount. The women of The 355 just shoot people. And then shoot them again.

The story involves five women from different countries' intelligence services: American CIA agent "Mace" Brown (Jessica Chastain), German GND agent Marie Schmitt (Diane Kruger), Briton Khadijah Adiyeme (Lupita Nyong'o) former MI6 agent, Colombian DNI psychologist Graciela Rivera (Penélope Cruz), and (eventually) Chinese MSS agent Lin Mi Sheng (Bingbing Fan). They're all after this super-drive that is being ponied about by a former drug cartel, now re-branding to concentrate on raw, naked power. Brown and Schmitt are the lone wolves, driven agents with prominent chips—the non-computer kind—on their shoulder holsters. Adiyeme got out of the game and is a tech security consultant with a stable home-life, and Rivera is the civilian, a PTSD specialist—brought in to bring in an operative from the field (physician, heal thyself)—who has a normal family life with a husband and two kids. It's her job to ask "What are you talking about?" when the strategizing starts to get technical.

These five women are operating in a world of men—both bad guys and purported good guys. It was The King's Man—a not-great movie with some "moments"—that pointed out that the best undercover agents are staff, usually made up of women and minorities, so these five are negotiating through the "man's world" by virtue of being overlooked...or being dismissed by allies and enemies alike ("Are you under control?" one of them asks. "No." is the reply. "Are you?" "No!" Of course, they're not) They all have "issues" which might seem less important if they were traits exhibited in "the boys," but these five are all trying to prove something. The result is they have little patience for negotiating, and they're brutal.

Take, for instance, when Brown and Schmitt—who have been seeking the same target from different sides—draw down on each other. Stalemate. Then, Schmitt gives the command to drop the weapon and starts a countdown. "5!" She starts. Then Brown takes it over before that second is up—"4!" Schmitt is even quicker in response with "3!" and you just know something bad is going to happen. Or when they've got a courier tied up and want information and give him the old cliche "You can do this the easy way or the hard way" and he refuses. One of them just shoots him in the leg, tells him she's deliberately hit his femoral artery and he's only got two minutes before he bleeds out. There's a tourniquet waiting if he agrees.

That's matched when the bad guys have the five at gun-point and, when they get stone-walled, bring up screens of the people closest to them, and then summarily shoot one after the other in the effort to get one of them—any of them—to crack. The film is tougher, more mean-spirited, and less contrived in setting up complications than just about any spy or action film that I've seen in a long time. You know the complaint about most spy movies—why don't they just shoot 'em—this is one that does that. But none of the participants in the critical "kill-box" for this film have mentioned it or given it any credit for it.

No. It's all about "the fashion."

* In the comments section of Lemire's review, nobody pointed this out. They were too concerned that women couldn't take out men in a fight because they weigh less. They hadn't seen the movie. Most of the fights dispense with "the manly art" because the women just shoot people in the head. Twice. For good measure. Jessica Chastain's character does have a fight...with one man...and it goes on and on and she's very bruised and bleeding after it. Bingbing Fan has a fight with four guys using the broken base of a free-standing lamp—she dispatches one while putting it through his neck.

 

** Please notice my lack of links for those sites. You can find them on your own without my help.

Us

You, Me, Us...and Especially "Them"
or
Defending Yourself Against Your Evil Twin

Jeremiah 11:11--Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.’

"It's not about 'race,' is it?" asked the friend who knew I'd seen Us. "Could be," I said. "But, probably not," I repeated. And then I started to laugh. 

And that's about the best response I can give to that question. All of it. Even the laugh.

Because if you're saying it's just about race relations in America, you're giving short-shrift to Jordan Peele, its writer/producer/director, for Us is a different experience than his first film, the crowd-pleasing Get Out; its reach is far greater, is not so "on the nose" as his previous film, and may leave a great deal of the audience wondering what in the heck he is doing with this one and, as a result, may find it frustrating, obtuse, and stretching credulity more than a bit.

I had the same experience. For instance, after its enigmatic opening (set in 1986) that starts with a teasing set-up with text, a couple of commercials from the era broadcast on television, and a visit by young Adelaide Thomas (at this point, she's played by Madison Curry), to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk with her dysfunctional parents and a totally ignored candy apple and an unsupervised visit to a hall of mirrors (where something shocking happens), we get the Main Title sequence that starts on a caged white rabbit* and slowly, ever so slowly, moves out to show more white rabbits...and just when you start thinking "where are brown bunnies?" well, there's a brown bunny. And I started thinking "Am I trying to make this about race?" Yes, I probably was. So, I turned off my critic-mind, looking for "meaning" and watched the movie.

Which is scary.

Adelaide Thomas is now Adelaide Wilson (and played by Lupita Nyong'o) and she and her family—husband Gabe (Winston Duke), daughter Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) and odd little brother Jason (Evan Alex), who always wears a monster mask, are on their way to visit the old Thomas family home in Santa Cruz. That Santa Cruz, where she had the unfortunate incident on the Boardwalk that gave her PTSD and that she has risen above. It's a normal family, Dad is relaxed and the butt of family jokes and rolling eyes, but he's amiable.

Adelaide is tentative about the trip, but not tentative about being with her family. Her experience at the Boardwalk has left a lifelong impression and she's anxious about it. Gabe couldn't be more excited, They're going to meet up with their friends, the upwardly mobile Tylers (Tim Heidecker and Elizabeth Moss) and their twin daughters, and he has plans to buy himself a boat—which Adelaide and the kids think is just nuts, but he's excited at the prospect of his new toy..

The Wilsons' trip to the Boardwalk, despite Adelaide's misgivings comes off with only one hitch—Jason goes missing on the beach. He just went to the Port-a-Potty for a moment. But when everyone realizes he's missing, Adelaide flies into a panic, finally finding him, standing transfixed at a homeless man on the beach, hands outstretched, holding a pair of scissors, blood dripping from his fingertips. This is enough for the shaken Adelaide to stop from going over to the Tyler's place après-beach.

Better to spend a quiet evening at home. Man plans. God...well, God has nothing to do with it (if you read your bible*).

That night, everybody's settling down about 11:11 pm, when four figures appear at the top of their driveway, blocking it. Gabe goes out to investigate, first being all-reasonable, but there's no response from up the drive. So, he escalates, going out with a baseball and a threat ("Y'all wanna get crazy? We gonna get crazy!").

It's at that point, that the group starts to move, splintering off in different directions and Gabe, wisely, sprints back inside the house. But, that doesn't prevent the strongest of the four from breaking the lock on the door and injuring Gabe's leg with the very bat he was using to defend himself.

The four figures enter the house and confront the Wilson's; they're malignant versions of each of them, dressed in red jumpsuits, communicating in animal grunts and holding a pair of ornate golden scissors. The Wilson's are scared, but incredulous at their malevolent twins. Adelaide asks her counter-part "Who are you?" Her wide-eyed doppelganger answers with the film's most chilling line: "We...are...Americans."

They are "The Tethered," duplicates who have been created, who live underground (in tunnels, access-ways, mines, and other "purposeless" channels—as mentioned in the opening text). The Tethered live parallel lives with their above-ground counterparts, but opposite to them in conditions; where they've lived above-ground in the sunlight, eating hot food, The Tethered have never seen the Sun, consuming cold food (them rabbits), cold and raw. While the Sun-dwellers live in luxury, The Tethered live in misery. The Tethered have no souls, and as the actions of the ones above affect their fates, they have decided to come to the surface and...sever ties.

Each of the family-members is pursued, dragged, paired off with their counter-parts to do them in, but each of the family-members get the better of their twins and eventually find out that they're not an isolated case—the whole country is under attack from this soulless army and the Wilson's make a plan to head to Mexico to avoid the destruction.

But...it's a horror movie, kids, and nothing is ever that easy in a horror movie.

Peele has set up a conceit that probably requires too much explanation and back-story, but it's a fascinating little metaphor for the struggles of class and of people confronting their worst selves and doing battle with—or being over come by—"it." It's a perfect little metaphor, but it's just a tough little conceit to swallow when it has so many unanswered questions of the "who, what, where, why" variety. But, especially "why." Why do this? Why create such a class of people and to what ends? The questions go unresolved because—really, does it matter? Do we really care why The Birds go crazy in Hitchcock's film? It's sure to be a let-down, not living up to the thrills depicted on-screen. The situation is what it is for the surface-dwellers and any delay or questioning of it is a momentum-killer and might cause anyone in the film to get scissored in the neck. You just keep fighting, Wilsons. We'll hold all questions until your're done.

Except, of course, for the final twist at the end which will change everything you think about the movie.

Except for one certainty: Lupita Nyong'o is one hell of an actress. After her startling performance (and Oscar win) for 12 Years a Slave, she has been sadly under-utilized, playing Black Panther's girl-friend (ferchrissakes) and (worse!) a motion-captured wizened alien in the new Star Wars Trilogy. Us, however, has her in full-force, playing two roles: one, the brave warrior, the momma-tiger, and the other, the evil step-sister who's the theatrical villain of the piece. Not only is she playing against type, she's playing it against herself—and neither role is given short-shrift. Jesus, I hope people remember this performance come awards time—the whole movie should be marked "Submitted For Your Approval."

It's the corner-stone of a clever little piece of cautionary fable about how the scariest thing you might find is in the mirror, and conquering it.

Or...do you?

Nyong'o a Nyong'o: "We have met the enemy and they is us."

*

10:1 Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2 Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

4 They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

5 They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

6 Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O Lord; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.

7 Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.

8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

9 Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.

10 But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.

11 Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.

12 He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

13 When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

14 Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.

15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

16 The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The Lord of hosts is his name.

17 Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.

18 For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.

19 Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous; but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.

20 My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.

21 For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.

22 Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.

23 O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

24 O Lord, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

25 Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

11:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying,

2 Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

3 And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,

4 Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God:

5 That I may perform the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord.

6 Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.

7 For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.

8 Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do: but they did them not.

9 And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

10 They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.

11 Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.

12 Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

13 For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.

14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

15 What hath my beloved to do in mine house, seeing she hath wrought lewdness with many, and the holy flesh is passed from thee? when thou doest evil, then thou rejoicest.

16 The Lord called thy name, A green olive tree, fair, and of goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he hath kindled fire upon it, and the branches of it are broken.

17 For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal.

18 And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings.

19 But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.

20 But, O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

21 Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand:

22 Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine:


23 And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.

* Peele has said in interviews that he also thinks rabbits are scary. Cute, sure. Ciddly, okay. But, they creep him out. And that sense of instinctual unease, and his ability to use it, is one of his unique gifts as a film-maker.