I’ve got to hand it to Sony for pulling their smartest move yet by making the main character here someone who appeals directly to the cinephile lives of essentially every Letterboxd user…
…but what doesn’t make sense though is how a company who made the box-office and critical bomb The Emoji Movie after being fished for its misinformed/pandering perspective, decided to immerse itself once again into Gen-Z and Millennial culture with a rendition of what is almost like “The Meme Movie” with its extroverted style of hit or missing sticky-note references left and right. I mean I can let a classic “no more wifi”, human degradation, or Mark Zuckerberg joke go from time to time, but what I can’t let go is how traditionalist this movie can be with its central parent & child exploration or its wishy-washy outlook on imperfections. Michael Rianda isn’t afraid to slip in a gag about offensive stereotypes yet he paradoxically gives into so many of them within the personalities and story arcs that are poofed up; it reminds me of Edgar Wright’s comedic level of restrictive stereotyping in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World that any ordinary fool has thought up to themselves before — which is why it’s appealing to many in the first place — so if you’re a part of that movie’s crowd this may be your tea given its also avidly quirky visuals which I will admit I usually delighted over and wished for to be in a better movie (i.e. Spider-Verse). Sadly however, The Mitchells vs. The Machines’ very constant hinderance on emphasizing pathos is just too predictable and overripe for me to fall head over heels.
But hey, who am I to hammer on a perfectly passable family bonding road trip movie? Don’t listen to this prude for whether or not you should watch this; your kids are probably not as picky as I am!
Verdict: C
“The Mitchells vs. The Machines” is now available to stream on Netflix.
Burning the Celluloid 
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