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Imaginary Friend (2024) Movie Review!
Recently, we decided to watch John Krasinski’s Imaginary Friend, or If for short. I don’t watch trailers, so I didn’t really know what to expect—all I could think about was Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends. This movie ended up being something truly special to me.
Spoilers: I try my best not to spoil the film. Though, some parts are hard not to discuss. So, while I hint at spoilers, I try not to blatantly spoil the ending.
If is all about childhood innocence, remaining positive in our darkest hours, and never abandoning who you are. These are messages I think most adults would do well to remember. The movie stars Bea, a young girl who has lost her mother and is now watching her dad’s health deteriorate throughout the course of the film. It’s Bea and her father’s relationship (John Krasinski) that helps tie all the movie’s themes together.
Her dad spends most of the movie in the hospital needing surgery. He tries to stay in high spirits throughout the film with his magic tricks, silly dances, and downplaying his condition. Bea, who is trying to act like an adult to offset her dad’s childish behavior, is constantly telling him to grow up or that life doesn’t have to be fun and wacky all the time. However, despite his condition worsening and Bea’s constant pressure for him to drop the happy dad act, he refuses.
Throughout the film, Bea resists his childish nature. I think she was trying to act strong and brave, having gone through this with her mom already. The fact that she’s twelve means she’s at that age where she desperately wants to be viewed as an adult. Then, when she meets Cal (Ryan Reynolds), Blue (Steve Carell), and Blossom (Phoebe Waller-Bridge), she starts to let her guard down.
She learns that imaginary friends have been forgotten, and they all live in a mysterious place called Memory Lane. Memory Lane was my favorite scene in the movie. We’re exposed to several IFs, most voiced by incredible actors like Brad Cooper as an ice cube and George Clooney as a spaceman, among many others. Memory Lane is constantly changing to fit the needs of the IFs and Bea’s imagination. It’s a truly wonderful place. I would have liked to revisit it, but it didn’t overstay its welcome and maintained an air of mysticism.
The core plot follows Bea and Cal teaming up to try and get the other IFs adopted—which they fail at. This leads to their epiphany: why not try to find the IFs’ original kids? This leads to some of the most beautiful moments in the movie. Blossom sharing a dance with her child, who is now an adult. Blue reconnecting with his child, also grown up, just in time to calm him down for his big meeting. And of course, Bea finally getting to embrace her own IF.
I view the adults making contact with their IFs as a metaphor for reconnecting with their inner child. Each character has been beaten down or just worn out from the everyday motions of life. When Blossom shares a dance with her child, we had discovered that her child had given up on their dreams of being a dancer because she was “too tall.” When she shares that dance with Blossom, she gets to—for the first time in who knows how long—just dance like she did when she was a kid.
When Blue finds his adult seconds before he has to present in front of his bosses, his adult is stressed and no longer able to calm himself down. However, when Blue touches his shoulder, we see a calming aura wash over Blue’s adult. It’s implied he does well in his presentation.
Finally, Bea finds her IF. This is a sweet and powerful moment at the film’s finale. All movie long, Bea was trying to be an adult, never worrying about herself. She was either trying to be strong for her dad, be there for the other kid in the hospital, or solve all the IFs’ problems—never really thinking about herself. Seeing her IF lets her be a kid again. It lets her embrace that side of herself that was vulnerable, that was naive, that was free.
I’m not sure if the timeline was explicitly explained in the movie, but it’s implied that she needed her IF in the past when life got hard or scary. I’m not certain if it was ever explicitly stated that this was when her mom was in the hospital, but now that her dad is in the hospital, she’s able to see all the IFs again.
If is a powerful and beautiful movie. It encourages us to never lose our sense of wonder or sense of self—that growing up doesn’t have to be scary or change who you are at your core. Bea learned this firsthand. She tried to be an adult and take things seriously when things looked bad, but the IFs and her dad constantly encouraged her to be herself and just live life. It’s a message I think would do us all good to hear.
I give If an 8 out of 10. Thank you so much for reading. Have a great day.
Let’s Talk: BatmanVSuperman!
Oh boy. It’s that time. Sorry this is so late.
(I do not own any rights to the images used throughout this article. All rights belong to the original creators)
Lets do a little background info as to why I am even doing this review and why I am a little annoyed. For starters, when characters got leaked(Wonder Woman and such). Everyone got so pumped. In the final days leading up to BvS the same people started saying the plot was convoluted and the cast was crowded and so on and so on. In fact, that seems to be the main reason it’s getting crapped on. So the way I see things is that big reviewers hyped it up when they knew they were going to crap all over it. Though I tend to stay away from big time reviewers and form my own opinion (and you should too!)
Spoilers: Yes. Enough to warrant this message anyway.
Quick note: I am not a huge Superman fan nor do I pretend to be so I will mostly be reviewing this as a movie and not a strict faithful retelling of the comics.
Let’s get down to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.
The Good:
The action! It’s the same Zack Synder here who directed The Watchmen and 300 among other movies as well. Anyway my point is the action is good. My favorite fight scene was the final Batman vs Superman fight. Watching Batman beat Superman to a pulp was wonderful (i prefer Batman over Superman honestly).
Ben Affleck. I loved the Dark Knight with Christian Bale and I so scared when they announced a new Batman. But boy, Ben was everything I wanted from a Batman. The old, edgy, push the chips to the center of the table Batman was wonderful. He stole the show in my opinion.
Visuals. The visuals were beautiful. I think notably the final action scene against Doomsday looked really pretty(If that’s the right word for it). The movie is probably underrated as far as color goes. There’s a series of scenes where they are showing the good Superman has done and the color is ominous and heavenly. When the citizens are on the roof and there’s a massive flood and the woman is holding out her hand. The camera then pans to show Superman in the sky. Yes, it is very metaphoric but also a gorgeous scene on it’s own.
The Bad
The Betrayal of Superman- To me, this is the part where the script/plot is the weakest. The propose makes sense. The goal is to turn Superman from a god to a devil. Simple enough. I see what they were going for. But I was not overly convinced by them. The shootout in the desert and the bombing of the court just seemed forced.
Lex Luthor
I wanted this to be awesome and it started out awesome. I should start with a disclaimer. I do not honestly know that much about Lex. I should say as far as backstory and motivation goes in the comic. This is just another point where the script missed the mark. So, Lex was trying to ruin Superman’s image. He wanted to show people Superman was not for the people. How do you do this? I’ll borrow a quote from my good friend the Joker. “It’s simple, uh we kill the Batman”. This sounds epic in theory. Have Superman bring the bat’s head to Lex. Batman being the metaphor for man. The introduction to a new villain and a similar name brought this to a halt. Anyway he seemed to be caught in this weird mix between the insanity of the Joker and the ambition of Kingpin . That might just be me?
The Ugly
Villains- If you avoided spoilers on the villains up to this point, stop reading now. If you’re interested, keep reading. Okay so Superman has to fight Batman, Lex, and Doomsday. This is the part where the plot gets crowded in my opinion. They should’ve just cut out Doomsday. I mean he’s famous for being the guy to “Kill Superman”. It was waaaaay too early to bring in Doomsday. The Batman vs Superman angle was amazing and the first two hours is fantastic. However, the addition of Doomsday I think is where the plot went too far. I know what you’re thinking, we needed Doomsday to bring the Justice League together. Here’s one alternative. They had been hinting at The Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman. Aquaman should’ve come out and beat them both to pieces and tell them to grow up. The camera kept hinting at the the pool where they throw the spear. Have Aquaman grab the spear, hit Superman, and than beat Batman to a pulp. Boom. No need to add Doomsday, or anything like that. or B. Have Lex build his combat suit and make Superman and Batman fight him. I do not know the best course, but they should’ve cut Doomsday. He is way to high profile of a villain to be a second tier baddie.
MARTHA- Yeah, this scene got made fun of and rightfully so. I know Bruce missed his mommy and we get constant flashback of her grave so it’s not out of place or anything like that, but it’s two titans dueling it out to the death and a single name makes them buddy buddy. Now if you enjoy this scene and this resolution, than great! But it was just kinda cheesy to me.
Final Review: 7.5/10
It’s not terrible and probably not as bad as everyone is making it out to be. The movie is visually breath taking and has a nice mix of developing plot and juicy action. Bruce is well developed and Lex is off to an okay start. I assume he will play a bigger role in future films. Also, if they cut the Doomsday part and just replace it with something other than Doomsday, this movie would probably be an 8 or 9.
So what is your guys opinions? Was it good, bad, or just straight up ugly?
Da_Hubbz 