Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Fans of Ghostbusters (1984) are partial to the very distinctive, spooky/ funny world of ghosts, ghost-hunters and their mythos. It’s a quirky world of unlikely heroes that, more or less, looked as if they had jumped right out of the pages of an ’80s comic-book. The transition from that form of filmmaking to the present way of making movies poses a challenge.

The creative world of Ghostbusters has been a tightly knit one from the get-go. Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd both starred in and wrote the two original movies (Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II) with Ivan Reitman directing both. Bill Murray, of course, was a hoot, as were Sigourney Weaver and Rick Moranis.

While the franchise of Ghostbusters expanded to animation, comic and video games after the second movie, there have been talks of a sequel with the original cast that never came into being. By 2014, the idea was dropped entirely, after Ramis passed away. Then came the generally hated reboot with an all-female cast, and the franchise hit a dead end.

However, the heart of the franchise started beating again when Jason Reitman (son of Ivan) came on board to direct and co-write an expansion to the original films, and thus Ghostbusters: Afterlife took on life.

Fans of the original will find much to like in the nostalgia-laden, family-friendly Ghostbusters: Afterlife, whereas there’s lot of emotional gravity to Tom Hanks’ Finch

Fans of the original will find much to like in this nostalgia-laden, family-friendly fare. Even though nods to the first Ghostbusters are evident everywhere, there is enough space for new audiences — the ones who have experienced the Stranger Things’ tone (felt in the first-half of Afterlife) — to feel at home.

The movie begins with the death of Egon (Ramis) who had settled in the sleepy town of Summerville, in the middle of nowhere, away from his friends, family and his former life. After his death, he has left behind a decrepit farmhouse and some barren land, all which is handed over to his estranged daughter Callie (Carrie Coon).

Callie is not doing good financially, so she comes to the farm with her two kids: Trevor Spengler (Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things) is your typical lanky teen and Pheobe (Mckenna Grace) is the nerdy one, who is gifted with her grandfather’s genes, explaining her love for science, glasses and social awkwardness.

They make new friends (one of them Paul Rudd, their summer school teacher), hear bumps and see weird phenomena around the house, till everything catches up with the last two movies. The climax, as anyone would assert, is very emotional — in fact, it could very well be the reason why Afterlife was made in the first place, and why it’s topping the box-office.

Jason Reitman has said he made Afterlife for fans, and it shows. Without a doubt, this film will be more enjoyable for them. However, with the way the screenplay is written, it’s equally enjoyable for someone who knows nothing about the previous Ghostbusters movies.

Rated PG-13 for supernatural action and some suggestive references

Finch

A man, a dog and a robot teach, comfort and learn to survive in an unlivable world. That is Finch in a nutshell.

In the scope of the post-apocalyptic genre (case in point: I AM Legend), this premise might not sound new or innovative. But like any film, when made artfully with the right amount of human melodrama, the result can never be bad — especially when you add Tom Hanks to the mix.

In the movie, the world is a barren wasteland. The ozone layer is destroyed to the point that if you go out without a proper protective body suit, you can turn into Swiss cheese (the analogy is used often in the film). There are no humans in sight besides the title character Finch (Hanks).

Finch is a robotics engineer who resides in the bunker of a company he used to work in. Living on scarce supply, he makes rounds to the barren cities looking for food, but that too is in scant quantity.

Besides food, Finch is worried about a more pressing matter: his dog — a scruffy little mutt called Goodyear (Seamus), who is his only living companion. The sad thing is that Finch is dying from solar radiation, and soon he will be too weak to take care of Goodyear.

His love for Goodyear’s wellbeing is such that he makes an advanced human-like robot (motion capture performance and voice by Caleb Landry Jones) for the dog’s companionship and survival.

When the robot (who later names himself Jeff) is almost ready, Goodyear, a smaller rover-robot Dewey and Finch have to leave their relatively safe bunker in the city of St. Louis for San Francisco, because their area is going to be enveloped in a deathly storm.

Seamless VFX and motion capture with beautiful cinematography by Jo Willems and crisp editing by Tim Porter empower Finch with a wallop of visual oomph and finesse. At the heart of the story, Hanks plays Finch with the kind and mellow air that only he innately brings to his roles.

Directed by Miguel Sapochnik (episodes of Game of Thrones and Repo Men) written by Craig Luck and Ivor Powell, there is lot of emotional gravity to the story, but the climax and the closure at the end — while very emotional and uplifting — feels more like the closing of a chapter than a culmination of the story.

Whatever its tiny lacks, the appeal of Finch is right there on its poster’s image: Tom Hanks. Like most of his films, you come for the actor and stay for the experience.

Streaming on Apple+, Finch is rated PG-13

Published in Dawn, ICON, November 28th, 2021